


Caged Lions Always Strike

by catsoo12



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: 1984 style, Lots of pairings, M/M, MAMA AU, Oppressive Government, Slow Build, Sorry guys, discontinued, yes - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-19
Updated: 2015-07-19
Packaged: 2018-08-28 10:16:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 29,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8441863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catsoo12/pseuds/catsoo12
Summary: The world that Luhan lives in is seemingly under a peaceful government where only equality and tolerance is preached but Luhan knows the darker reality. Hiding his ability in fear of his parents and the government, he has lived his entire life looking over his shoulder. Now he is nearly achieving his dream of becoming a medic and is uncovering things he never wanted to know and meeting new people that mean much more to him than he wished. With strange dreams and government secrets, Luhan struggles to find a place for himself in this world.{DISCONTINUED}





	1. Ice Flowers

“See you tomorrow, Tao!” Luhan waved goodbye and entered his room in the building.

It had been a stressful first month, especially since Luhan was used to being coddled by teachers, but he had made it through the first month of being an Academy student.

He had already made a few friends, Tao and Kris, who were in their second year and were not against helping Luhan.

Since Luhan had particularly good grades and his family were already well-known, he had been lucky to receive a big and fully furnished modern apartment for his stay in the Academy.

It was nowhere near the scale of his house, but Luhan was happy with what he had been given. He wasn’t going to complain when he had a large apartment to himself whilst Tao and Kris shared a small apartment with minimal furniture.

Luhan walked down the hallway to his bedroom to drop off his homework for the medic class before heading to the kitchen across the bedroom in the hallway.

He made a quick dinner of spaghetti bolognese, just enough to fill himself up, and then hurried back to his bedroom to start his homework.

Luhan had always maintained a few habits to keep him in the top of his classes. He always listened to everything his teachers said, always made plenty of notes, and he did his homework the day it was set.

Many called him various names such as teacher’s pet or even goody-two-shoes but Luhan knew that this would allow him to fulfil his dream of becoming a medic for the peacekeeping forces.

He sat down at his desk.

His powers hadn’t quite agreed with his aspirations so he pretended to have never found them. He knew it was disappointing to his parents who still thought that Luhan had yet to discover his powers. He knew it was a great embarrassment to have a son in the Academy of Magical Arts who still hadn’t discovered his powers.

But how could he tell his parents of his powers when he had been given the useless power of telekinesis.

Luhan had heard the stories that his teachers had always told him. And in every story, the person with telekinesis ended up as builder or some other common job.

Luhan had wanted to become a medic and he was so, so ashamed of having such a weak power.

How could he face his mother and father, both having pyrokinesis, with this useless power?

He wouldn’t.

He hid it for years.

And now Luhan is 3 years away from completing his degree as a Medic for the peacekeeping forces.

He started on his homework – something basic for the first few months – labelling the different energy streams in humans and their sources.

x x x x x x

 

_Everything was a blur of shapes and colours._

_Before Luhan could understand what he was seeing, the blurs changed._

_This repeated over and over again until Luhan started to see faces amongst the blurs._

_Most were faces that he didn’t recognise but a few he did recognise as people from the academy._

_The blurs,_ dreams _, regularly changed with different scenarios._

_Luhan saw flames surrounding a tall man with high cheekbones within a forest for a few seconds but then it suddenly changed to show a mountainous area full of flowers with a man with a thin face in the centre, holding some vines in his hands._

_The dream ended with a view of a field covered in snow that seemed to go on forever._

_In the centre sat a man with a boy’s face with full cheeks holding something in his hands._

_Luhan began to feel the grass under his bare feet and started to walk towards the man who was not too far from him._

_As he got closer, Luhan realised the object in his hand was a white chrysanthemum surrounded by frost._

_As he realised this, Luhan took another step forward towards the man but this proved too close._

The dream suddenly began to blur and then fade away as Luhan awoke in cold sweat.

He lifted up his body and looked around his room with heavy breaths and wide eyes.

Outside his window, the sky was still dark and the street lights still bright.

“Kim Minseok…” he whispered his name into the darkness of his room.

Luhan shook his head and slammed his head back into his pillow with eyes shut tightly.

x x x x x x

Luhan was in the library adding to his class notes with Kris and Tao by his side at the desks provided.

“Last week I wanted to eat out and we stayed in like you wanted so this week we do what I want to do!” Tao’s whiny voice could be heard throughout the entire library as he jokingly argued with Kris.

“But how can we go to China this afternoon and be back before morning class tomorrow?” Kris countered and pressed a kiss to Tao’s temple.

Tao rolled his eyes and pushed a chaste kiss onto Kris’ lips, “You know how…” his eyebrows lifted and his voice turned to a whisper in Kris’ ear.

Luhan groaned and pushed his hand down his face whilst keeping his eyes on his notebook, “Can you guys keep the gross stuff in your room please? Some of us are trying to work here…”

Tao stuck out his tongue, “You’re just jealous!” he exclaimed and prodded Luhan’s shoulder.

Luhan rolled his eyes, “Remind me why we’re friends, again?”

Kris chuckled, “’Cause we’re totes amazeballs.” He teased.

Luhan pouted, “You guys suck! I’m trying to work here!”

Tao shrugged, “We weren’t bothering you, and you just chose to comment on our relationship.”

It made sense, really. But that doesn’t mean Luhan was ready to accept it.

“Shut up.” He turned back to his notebook and pile of books.

It was then that the library suddenly turned a lot rowdier than it had been and Luhan noticed that a lot of the girls had moved to the entrance.

Tao suddenly groaned, pulled away from Kris’ lap back onto his own chair, and rolled his eyes. “Now we can’t get any peace with all the fangirls…”

Luhan frowned, “It’s not like the library is peaceful for the purposes you were using it for, anyway. Who are the fangirls for?”

Kris and Tao both stared at him like he’d grown horns, “You don’t know?” Kris exclaimed.

“Hey! Today is my 2nd month anniversary of being in this academy! Unlike you two incestuous twins, I have a life outside of this academy and don’t have enough time to hear gossip and stalk the most popular guys in school!” Luhan whined loudly whilst still writing in his book.

There were no snarky responses from Tao and Kris so Luhan looked up.

He felt his heart stop and his blood reach his cheeks to illuminate his face into a jolly red.

Tao and Kris looked thoroughly traumatised as Luhan found the subject of his exclamation before his face.

And it was a very familiar face with round cheeks and thick, raised eyebrows accented with a toothy grin.

“I’m honoured that such a beautiful man would want to stalk me but I really don’t think I’m that popular” he teased with a gentle chuckle as he sat down in the chair in front of Luhan’s desk.

Now, Luhan hasn’t always been the best at talking. His parents could testify to that after literally giving Luhan lines during every business meeting held in the house.

But he had at least wanted to be nice in the first sentence he would ever say to someone he could  _feel_  would be important to him.

But Luhan’s mouth never really co-operates with his brain and sarcasm always seems to flow best.

“Boy, I wonder who the fangirls are for then…” he rolled his eyes and he subtly gestured to the crowd of women around the few desks in the corner near the windows.

The man looked shocked for a second then laughed, “You have a point!”

Luhan noted how his cheeks seemed to cover his eyes as he laughed and his gummy smile that looked so innocent.

“I’m Kim Minseok, nice to meet you,…” he trailed off and pointed at Luhan.

Luhan was speechless for a second as it dawned on him why this Kim Minseok seemed familiar.

He was one of the faces in his dream, and the man in the field with the frosted flower.

Luhan frowned, “Luhan.” He finished.

Luhan briefly heard the women around him whisper among themselves as he heard his name in their lips.

Minseok smiled again and got out his notebook from his bag and slid it onto the table, “Well, I better start on my homework!”

Luhan gave him a disapproving look, rolled his eyes, but did not protest. It’s not like he owned the library desks anyway.

Beside him, he could see Tao and Kris from the corner of his eye still looking shocked, so Luhan gave them a glance and shrugged.

x x x x x x

 

Luhan entered the lecture hall for his class on tactical placement of troops. It had been part of his Medic course since he needed to learn how to be useful whilst in battle and still be able to heal.

Since he was one of the first to enter the class, Luhan had managed to grab a seat in the front few desks. He sat down and got his notebook and stationery out onto the table and began to wait for his class to begin.

The lecture hall began to fill up as more people came into his class and Luhan noticed someone walking behind him to sit in the seat beside him.

He turned to greet them but Luhan froze when his eyes landed upon Kim Minseok.

Minseok sat down on his left and slid his notebook and stationery onto the table, “Hey there, Luhan”

Gummy smile with a small wave.

Luhan have a curt nod back since the professor had just sat down.

The lecture went on for the usual 90 minutes and Luhan was thoroughly bored and sleepy at the end of it.

He turned to his left side to complain to Minseok about how bored he was until he noticed Minseok’s wide eyes and small smile as he excitedly took notes.

“How are you not half asleep?” Luhan exclaimed with a disbelieving look.

Minseok slowly turned to Luhan and shrugged, “I like classes on tactics.”

Luhan frowned and turned towards his notebook again to finish taking notes, “I prefer classes on medical stuff.” He mumbled.

Minseok turned to look at him, “You don’t look like that sort of guy, honestly. I thought you were more of a leadership type of guy!” he commented with a small cheeky smile.

Luhan rolled his eyes, he seemed to be doing that a lot with Minseok recently, “Everyone always says that but I don’t think you’d want me for a leader…” he trailed off towards the end.

Minseok sent Luhan a concerned gaze, sensing a sensitive topic, he hurried to change subject. “So what classes do you have? Maybe we share more classes without even knowing.” He sent Luhan a kind smile.

Luhan looked towards Minseok again and seemed to be in his usual smiley mood, “Medical, Basic Magical Knowledge, Medical History, and Magical History.”

Minseok grinned, “Hey! I have Magical History too! But I’m in Advanced Magical Knowledge rather than basic… I have to train my ability, after all.”

Luhan seemed to flinch again and suddenly stood up from his seat, hurriedly packed his stationery and notebook into his backpack and made to leave the desk.

Minseok, sensing his distress, grabbed Luhan’s wrist before he could go. “Did I say something wrong?” he seemed serious to Luhan.

Luhan looked into Minseok’s eyes for something, he didn’t quite know what, he shook his head and pulled his wrist away. “No. I just have to be somewhere right now.” He said quietly.

Minseok seemed saddened but nodded anyways, “If you say so. See you soon!” he offered Luhan a small gummy smile and watched as Luhan sped out of the lecture hall.

x x x x x x

 

Luhan was sitting in the library again, this time on the plush chairs towards the back of the room, with Tao and Kris beside him.

Rather than reading or taking notes, he felt like Tao and Kris were interrogating him.

“Why did Kim Minseok sit in front of you last week at the library? He seemed to know you! He doesn’t normally sit in front of random people!” Tao whined.

Luhan groaned into his hands that were covering his face, “ _I don’t know!_  I don’t know him, I don’t know why he sat in front of me, and why do you care anyways?”

Tao sent him a glare and tilted his head to the side, Luhan knew from 2 months of friendship that this meant that he was annoyed. He was about to open his mouth to say something when-

“It’s too late for this shit anyways… Can I just go to my room and sleep?” Luhan was the one whining now.

Kris seemed to give into Luhan and was about to nod when Tao suddenly grabbed Luhan’s face and came really close to his face, “What did you talk about in the lecture hall?” he demanded with determined eyes.

Luhan looked shocked and pushed Tao’s face away, “How do know that?”

Tao rolled his eyes and crawled back into Kris’ lap, “Who  _doesn’t_  know? His fangirls basically told everyone in the academy with their loud mouths and now they’re calling you a threat to Minseok’s status… Whatever than means.” He seemed annoyed.

Luhan groaned again and resorted to giving his face and temple a serious massage, “How does a student even have fangirls?”

Kris commented, “He does have a pretty cute face and I share some classes with him and I can say that he is _smart_. He’s been here for a long time, apparently. Hence the fanclub.”

Tao rested his head on Kris’ chest, looking up at him, “Not as cute as me though?” he pouted.

Kris chuckled, “Never.” He winked and they kissed.

Luhan, who had just removed his hands from his face, groaned and stood up. “I’m gonna go ahead and leave you two to your facial reconstruction.”

He could see Tao shrug from under Kris’ arms that had wrapped around him and he hurriedly left the library and walked towards his apartment building.

x x x x x x

 

_His vision was blurry again and Luhan tried to get his eyes to focus but it was impossible._

_He saw flames and jets of water dance about his vision and then a strong gust of wind made Luhan shiver._

_He saw another blur of faces. He saw the same face as last time amongst the flames, but it was quickly replaced by a more mature face of a man in a white shirt lying in rocky gorge._

_The man was very pale and his skin seemed illuminated by the reflections of the sun on the water’s surface._

_A gust of wind shook the image and it dissolved into ripples._

_Once the image settled, Luhan saw a familiar wide field._

_He turned to look at the middle of the field where he knew he would find that person again._

_But that person wasn’t there._

_Luhan began to worry. If Minseok wasn’t there, could something have happened to him?_

_But then he remembered that this was a dream, and not reality._

_As he calmed down, he realised that there was a small gathering of trees towards his right. Without knowing why, he started walking towards the trees. As he broke the threshold, he realised that the trees were hiding a large lake._

_Luhan walked towards the lake and stopped at the edge. Sitting in the middle of the lake, the_ frozen _lake, was Minseok._

_Now that Luhan had met him, he noticed that this Minseok seemed to have an expressionless face with no sign of the usual joyful eyes and gummy smiles. For some reason, Luhan felt saddened at this realisation._

_Luhan wanted to get closer to Minseok on the lake. He hesitantly took a step on the ice and brought his other foot onto the ice when he confirmed it wouldn’t break._

_Luhan thought he would slip but it seemed like dream iced lakes were different from the usual slippery iced lakes of reality._

_He began to walk towards Minseok and was only a few steps away from the man as the man’s head began to lift from looking at the ground in front of him to directly into Luhan’s eyes._

_Luhan felt a chill go down his spine and his right hand suddenly felt a few degrees cooler._

_He held up his hand and noticed the frozen chrysanthemum in his hand._

_He almost dropped it in shock and he turned to Minseok only to see the landscape, and Minseok, dissolve into colourful blurs once more._

_And once again, Luhan awoke in cold sweat but his right hand felt significantly cooler._

_He found it a lot harder to fall asleep once more._

x x x x x x

Luhan was the first in the lecture hall for Magical History so he sat down in the back this time. He began to place his equipment on his desk and felt someone hang around his left side.

He turned to find a very familiar gummy smile, “Morning!” Minseok always seemed so content.

Luhan frowned and ignored Minseok as he finished organising his desk.

If Minseok noticed his foul mood, he wasn’t making it obvious. “Do you mind if I sit here?” Minseok pointed to the seat on Luhan’s left.

Luhan sighed, “Yes.”

Minseok smiled and sat down. Luhan frowned once more and turned angrily to Minseok, “I meant that  _yes_ , I  _do_  mind.” He crossed his arms.

Minseok seemed panicked and looked down at his lap, “Was it something I said the other day? I’m sor-“

“No! I just… I just don’t want to talk to you.” Luhan shouted in frustration and felt himself go red as a few students had come into the hall since Luhan had arrived.

Luhan groaned and gathered his stuff into his bag and left the lecture hall, leaving a confused Minseok behind.

Once Luhan was in his room and leaning against the closed door he ran a hand down his face, “Now I’m going to miss a class… I’ll have to ask someone for notes.”

Luhan pretended to chastise himself for missing a class but he knew he was angry at himself for something else.

He didn’t know why he was avoiding Minseok but his right hand seemed to be pulsing whenever he was with Minseok.

Luhan noticed a small mark in the middle of his palm. It seemed easy to miss to normal people since it was so small and the same colour as a regular beauty but Luhan  _knew_.

It was a small flower.

He groaned and slid down the door to the floor with his hands in his head.

x x x x x x

Luhan, Tao and Kris were heading towards the ability training grounds.

All three of them had chosen to not enrol in any ability training for personal reasons so they weren’t going there to train.

But all three of them were bored and had decided to do some extra note-taking in preparation for the mock exams coming up so they had decided to study up on abilities.

The ability training grounds were situated in a field far away from the academy buildings. There was the main arena which was circular in shape and glass domed and a few smaller buildings around the outside that were designated for each specific ability with surrounding fields.

Tao and Kris headed towards the training hut with a sign bearing the ice insignia. Luhan hesitated but followed them both into the hut.

They were greeted by an ice rink in the centre of the room with a few targets in various shapes around the edges and the middle of the rink and chairs and a bar outside the rink.

Kris pulled Tao towards the seats closest to the rink and Luhan followed as they both sat down.

Luhan took the seat on Tao’s right and looked around the ice rink for someone to study.

He considered choosing this girl that seemed to be much younger than him and was experimenting with creating focused and concentrated ice storms but wasn’t having much success after the first few seconds.

His eyes strayed to a man that was working on creating small and sharp pieces of ice and launching them at different targets. Luhan couldn’t see his face but he silently admired his great control of his ability and his focus in being able to hit bullseye in several targets.

“He’s amazing, isn’t he? He’s one of the strongest ice ability students in our academy because he’s been here for so long.” Kris commented after he noticed Luhan’s stare.

Luhan nodded, still dazedly looking at the back of the student with a red hoodie, “Who is he?”

Kris suddenly laughed and Tao started laughing with him.

Luhan broke his daze and poked Kris, “Hey!” he whined, “I’m new to this academy!”

Kris started laughing even harder and Tap began to wipe at the tears in his own eyes, “You really should know this, though!”

Luhan groaned and slapped Kris’ shoulder, “Just tell me!” he whined.

Luhan suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to the hand.

His eyes widened at the familiar red hoodie and looked up, only to have his eyes widen even more as he noticed the familiar face.

He heard Kris’s and Tao’s laughter subside and Minseok turned to them, “You two tease him too much.” He sent them a charming wink.

Tao gasped and poked Minseok in his ribs, “No flirting with my boyfriend!” he chastised mockingly.

Minseok chuckled and turned back to Luhan who was still speechless but was slowly turning red with embarrassment.

Minseok took his hand off Luhan’s shoulder, “I can show you something cooler, if you’d let me?” Minseok asked with a shy smile.

Luhan turned a normal shade once more, nodded, and added “Cooler as in awesome, right? Because I don’t want to freeze to death here!” he teased.

Minseok laughed melodically, “You’re going to love it!”

Luhan nodded but failed to notice Kris and Tao’s knowing looks as they left the hut.

Minseok rolled up the sleeves of his hoodie and cupped his hands together and Luhan saw a bit of light leave his hands through the gaps of his fingers.

They were both smiling generously with Luhan getting closer and closer to Minseok’s hands in his curiosity, completely forgetting his distaste for abilities.

The light suddenly stopped and Minseok began to open his hands.

Luhan didn’t know whether to feel scared or joyful so instead he gasped as Minseok revealed a chrysanthemum made of ice in the middle of his palms.

Minseok looked into Luhan’s eyes, “Do you like it?” he seemed like a child as he awaited Luhan’s approval.

Luhan was looking between the flower in Minseok’s hands and his eyes.

A part of Luhan wanted to scream since it looked exactly like the frozen flowers in his night terrors but a part of him also wanted to tell Minseok that it was beautiful because it really was beautiful and shone in the artificial lights of the hut.

Minseok’s smile began to slip.

Luhan hurried to make him smile again, “It’s really nice, Minseok! I never thought ice art was particularly beautiful but this flower really stands out.” Luhan gave him a gentle smile.

Minseok smiled again, “I’m glad you like it. It’s a chrysanthemum, it’s my favourite flower.” He explained as he sat down in the seat on Luhan’s left.

Luhan nodded, “I know, it’s my family’s symbol.”

They both talked for a while before Minseok had to head to his class but they both hurriedly said that they’d see each other in their next class together.

That night, the nightmares came back full force and hit Luhan even harder.

The blurs seemed violent and moved far too quickly for Luhan and he had a fitful sleep with no rest.

 

 


	2. Mountain Flowers in the Dawn

A man with a gaunt, thin face and high cheekbones was lying in the middle of the vines.

The air was thin but he was already used to it with his steady deep breaths in the mountain air.

The forest around him chirped the dawn chorus as the daytime animals slowly stirred and awoke for another day.

The man had his eyes closed and his body was curled up underneath a thick tree with hanging vines that were beginning to bloom.

“Are you going to get up now? We have to gather the chasteberries again this morning before they wither away.” The dried leaves of autumn crunched under his feet as he walked closer to the curled up figure under the tree.

The man on the floor stirred slightly and opened his eyes, facing the other man, “I wouldn’t let them wither, Baekhyun, so we can take our time.” His voice sounded slightly groggy, but not from sleep.

Baekhyun sighed and ran his hand through his fringe, unsticking his hair from his sweaty forehead from the humidity of early autumn in the mountains.

“I don’t want you to use your abilities, Yixing. It’s too dangerous now that the people in the village know you’re staying here.”

The man on the forest floor, Yixing, opened his eyes and looked pensive. “I need to make sure that the deer family I saw last week are doing okay.” He suddenly sat up and began to stand up.

Baekhyun sighed and shook his head as he held out a hand to help Yixing up, “There you go again” he chuckled.

Yixing smiled at Baekhyun after he had finally stood, “They had a little fawn and I know you like baby animals so…”

Baekhyun grinned and patted Yixing roughly on his shoulders, “We can go see them  _after_  the berries are picked, Thumper.”

Yixing pouted but nodded and started to lead the way towards Baekhyun’s house. They’d both walked this trail so many times that they were surprised that there wasn’t a worn path with their footsteps.

Baekhyun had lived in this mountain since his parents disappeared and he had been sent to live with his grandma and it had been so long ago that he barely remembered the days when he didn’t breathe the fresh mountain air that was thinner the higher you went up.

“Baekhyun, what do you want for breakfast?” a rough yet affectionate voice called out as Baekhyun led Yixing into the garden behind the old stone house that they lived in.

“Whatever you want, grandma!” he shouted back as he opened the door to the small greenhouse they had in the back.

It was one of the few modern appliances that the house had since they preferred to rely on traditional methods that were proven to work, rather than buy the new modern technology that would have to be replaced every once in a while.

The house was old. Anyone could tell from the mottled front of the house with black stones and mortar occasionally filling in any gaps between the white stone of the house. But it was home to Baekhyun and Yixing.

And so they did what they always did.

Baekhyun picked the chasteberries and put them in a bag to be given to his grandma for her to dry to use later and Yixing would distract himself with the other plants and flowers in the garden or even the beetles that passed the pots where the chasteberries grew.

It was familiar and whilst Baekhyun often complained that Yixing did nothing to help him, he wouldn’t have it any other way.

x x x x x x

 

Luhan’s day started the same way it always does. (As long as Luhan doesn’t have one of his odd night terrors that he has yet to tell anyone about)

He got out of bed, took a shower, and brushed his teeth with his dinosaur toothbrush that Tao bought for him (“It’s super manly!” Tao had said with stifled laughter).

And then Luhan got his bag ready for whatever class he would have that day.

Today, Luhan had his Magical History class that he shared with Minseok so he made sure to pack some individually packaged biscuits for the both of them as well as his usual notebook and stationery.

Luhan usually woke up early enough for breakfast and today was no different as he prepared an omelette with little shredded pieces of ham like his mother made for him as a child.

And after all this was done, Luhan headed to the lecture hall for his Magical History to find a couple of seats for him and Minseok.

In the past couple of months that Luhan had known Minseok for, they had grown close. And soon, Minseok joined Luhan, Tao, and Kris for lunch every day in the cafeteria.

Magical History class was always Luhan’s least favourite class.

Luhan had always held back his abilities and always ashamed of being someone with such a useless ability. So whenever teachers droned on and on about how each person’s ability is useful and contributes to society, Luhan always feels a small amount of anger.

But the class isn’t as bad as it could be with Minseok constantly making jokes and impressing Luhan with his ice ability. Luhan only wished he’d had such an amazing ability too.

Luhan decides to tune into the lesson and make some notes for the upcoming exam.

“Abilities are used in every aspect of life.” The professor began, “From fire ability citizens powering our cities and heating our homes to teleportation ability citizens ensuring that citizens are transported to wherever they need to be.” Luhan scoffed.

“Abilities keep this society afloat and is even used during wars. Although, wars are a relic of the past in today’s government who employs strong citizens with abilities to keep the peace with their peacekeeping forces.”

This was the reality of many classes that were compulsory by the government. Many classes featured constant propaganda, which Luhan wasn’t fond of.

Many people had prospered from the new government, like Luhan’s family, when they came into power when Luhan was very young after a long civil war.

Many people were killed in the war and the country was in shambles so they government had to step up and reform the country.

Hence the propaganda to shield people from the reality – the purges.

People with certain abilities were purged, or so people thought when people began to suddenly disappear.

Nobody is quite sure what happens behind the thick veil surrounding the government, but people don’t want to end up a target for prying either.

But people did know that there were certain abilities that were more sought after and certain families that the government was fonder of because they possessed that certain ability.

Like Luhan’s family, who possessed the ability of Pyrokinesis – the manipulation of fire.

“There are categories to each ability to organise society. Like the ‘Elemental Circle’ which includes fire, water, wind, and earth. These are widely used for construction, but are most often used as soldiers.”

Luhan had known a boy in his village who had first used his fire ability accidently on a house and had burnt it down. The next day, Luhan saw soldiers at the child’s house and never heard from him again.

Luhan had been young and assumed that he had gone to become a soldier but he was no longer naïve and knew better nowadays.

“There were also several times in the past when certain abilities were shamed and even purged.” Luhan gulped.

“The abilities of telekinesis, time, flight, and healing have often been a victim of shaming and purging because of their rarity as well as uses. We will be having individual lessons on each ability later on in the year.”

Minseok looked at Luhan as Luhan had gone deathly silent and as pale as the pages of his bleached notebook paper.

“This lesson we will be focusing on healing, one of the rarest of all known abilities.”

Luhan breathed a sigh of relief and began to write notes again.

“Healing is often associated with healing people but perhaps ‘healing’ is not a correct name. The ability is usually known by scientists as ‘Energy Transfer Ability’ as the person is able to transfer some of their own energy into an organism, or even remove energy into themselves. It is a very dangerous ability.”

Luhan had never been able to find much information on healing in his books since it was mostly confidential for government officials only – Luhan wasn’t quite sure why.

“Healing ability citizens are often discovered near areas where farmers’ crops thrive from the mere presence of the person with that ability. And the ability is usually used in hospitals to heal sick and injured people but it can be used for farming too, where crops can be grown much faster and produce a higher yield.”

Luhan began to feel nauseous and tuned out his professor’s words at that point. He remembers feeling his hands start to sweat and his pen began to slip through his hands.

Minseok turned to Luhan with a concerned gaze as he felt Luhan move beside him into the back of his chair. He noticed that Luhan seemed a lot paler and his skin was slick with sweat.

“Luhan, are you okay? Do you want to take a breather outside?” he whispered into as Minseok leaned closer to Luhan.

Luhan seemed to only hear, or at least understand, what Minseok was saying a few seconds later and Minseok began to worry. He had never seen this sort of behaviour with Luhan.

Luhan began to turn to look at Minseok as he broke his terrified gaze at the professor and looked straight into Minseok’s eyes with the same gaze.

Minseok felt a chill down his spine at the vines of terror sweeping into Luhan’s eyes and he followed the drops of perspiration down the side of Luhan’s face with his eyes.

Minseok made the decision to take Luhan outside of that class, even if Luhan protested.

Thankfully, they were both sitting at the back of the lecture hall this time. So the privacy they needed was there and Minseok could take Luhan outside without bothering the other students.

So he grabbed his and Luhan’s bags with their stuff inside them in one hand and Luhan’s wrist in the other and dragged Luhan up from his seat and out through the thick double doors of the lecture hall.

Once they were outside and the thick doors had been slammed shut, Minseok could put down the bags and focus on helping Luhan out of whatever state he was in.

So Minseok sat Luhan down on the floor opposite the lecture hall and brought his hands to Luhan’s shoulders and he tried to get Luhan to focus on his face.

Minseok noted that Luhan had looked exactly the same as he had in the lecture hall and probably hadn’t even realised that he was no longer inside.

Luhan was frozen.

His mind simply couldn’t move past the professor’s words and Luhan’s own guilt and demons.

He felt like there were 4 walls around him slowly moving into his space and he had no way to stop them from inevitably crushing him.

He felt like there were weights made of pure iron hanging right on top of him, waiting for whatever was holding them up to snap and crush Luhan under its weight.

It felt like-

“-han!”

“Luhan!”

It felt like shards of ice were being aimed at his neck and Luhan could do nothing to stop them dicing his throat up if he moved the wrong way.

Luhan felt thin and weak, as if he would turn into smithereens and blow away with the wind if someone touched him.

“Luhan! Please! Listen to me!”

Luhan felt scared. And he didn’t know what of anymore.

It wasn’t just the lesson on abilities anymore, but everything coming down at once.

The dreams, his ability, his fears, his guilt, his family, his worries.

Luhan felt his breaths get even faster until he was struggling to get enough air with the speed his lungs were going at.

It took Minseok slapping him for him to finally get back to himself.

“Luhan?” Minseok had wide eyes that were shiny and wet and- Were those tears?

Minseok was crying for him?

“Luhan, I’m sorry for hitting you but I had no idea what to do! You weren’t breathing anymore and I was so scared and-“

Minseok was rambling.

“-Thank you.” Luhan interrupted.

Minseok sighed and looked confused yet sad at the same time, “Are you going to tell me what’s wrong?”

Luhan gave him a wry smile and scratched the back of his head with his index finger, “Maybe some other day… Sorry.”

Minseok smiled, “That’s okay. Just don’t hold it in forever.”

Luhan wanted to sob.

x x x x x x

 

Baekhyun was cooking Yixing’s favourite beef stew with his grandma for dinner when it all happened.

At first, Baekhyun had thought that there must have been a wild bear outside since the birds had suddenly gone quiet.

It took Yixing to notice that there were no sounds of bears prowling about yet the birds were still deathly quiet.

And then the peace of Baekhyun’s and Yixing’s lives ended when the old door that Baekhyun’s great-grandad had made long ago was knocked down by a dozen men dressed in camouflage print.

They came in with their loud shouts that made the birds flee and their guns pointed at Yixing mostly, but some at Baekhyun too.

They came in and they dragged Yixing by his hair into the middle of them and put some sort of chain around him that made Yixing fall to the group whimpering, looking pale and sweaty.

Baekhyun had wanted to do something,  _anything_ , but he was powerless as another soldier hit him in the head and it all turned black.

Baekhyun had just a second to hear his grandma’s screams. Of agony or anguish, he didn’t know.

It was to be the last time that Baekhyun would ever see her again.

x x x x x x

 

_Bright white light covered Luhan’s eyes and then perpetual darkness that made Luhan feel like he was falling._

_He attempted to grasp at whatever he could find but Luhan found no purchase._

_Suddenly, a bright white light shone upon him and Luhan was blinded as his eyes struggled to adjust to the sudden change._

_As his eyes adjusted to the newfound light, Luhan found himself in a green forest covered in trees and leafy plants that smelt like the rain. In the distance, Luhan could hear a gentle stream._

_Luhan felt himself breathe a little harder – the air was thinner here._

_Luhan noticed amongst the trees and shrubs a man with his eyes closed lying on his back with various flowering vines wrapped around his body._

_If Luhan hadn’t known better, he would’ve thought the man dead._

_The vines seemed to be wound tightly around the man’s body, almost as if it were sucking life from the man and feeding itself to feed the blooming bright red flowers that were spread out amongst the vines._

_Luhan saw yet another flash of white light and suddenly there was a man with dark eyes standing behind the man on the ground._

_The second man seemed to have eyes that glowed amongst the darkness behind the trees and shrubs and he was staring intensely at Luhan with fisted hands, eyes lined with black kohl giving him a predatory aura._

_The man on the ground began to stir and open his eyes, which seemed to attract the forest animals towards the pair of mysterious men._

_Numerous bears, rabbits, and deer began to walk towards the little group and soon Luhan was surrounded and unable to run away._

_The man with the angry seemed to step into the light shining from above the canopy._

_His hair reflected the light rays which gave him a halo which Luhan didn’t think he deserved._

_But even more amazing was how his eyes seemed to absorb the light and glow as the man was slowly walking towards Luhan._

_Luhan took a step back in fear and yet another step as he realised that the man that had been lying down was now stood next to the other man._

_Luhan shut his eyes tightly, willing his dream to end before the two men killed him where no one could find him._

_He didn’t open his eyes again until he felt a chill surround his body._

_His surroundings had suddenly frozen and the two men were nowhere to be seen; gone were the animals, too._

_Luhan started feeling the flames of fear lick at his feet once more but suddenly felt at ease as a familiar hand was brought down upon his left shoulder._

_He turned to find Minseok’s smiling face and Luhan smiled back._

_Then the lights flashed again and more blurs passed._

Luhan awoke in his bed in cold sweat. He sighed.

x x x x x x

 

“So, what I was saying is that first we should go shopping because, no offence Luhan, your wardrobe is awful. Who matches pink striped shirts with green polka dot shorts? And  _then_  we should go eat!”

The topic of Luhan’s wardrobe choices had come up whilst deciding where to eat out during the group’s free day.

“But we’ll get hungry and then what will we do? Starve and shop?” Luhan had always been the one with the most logic.

“Whilst wardrobe choices is of great importance, Tao, food is higher on my priority list.” But Minseok had the most common sense among them, being the eldest.

“I say we eat a light snack before shopping, go shopping, and then have lunch.” Kris always had the fairest ideas too – he would make a good leader. Luhan had thought that since he first met the dependable and seemingly cold man.

Tao gasped and brought his hand to cover his mouth, “Do you  _want_  me to get fat??”

Luhan and Minseok rolled their eyes and hurried to leave the academy building before Tao could hold them back again.

“Honey, I was just trying to find a solution that fit us all!”

Tao scoffed, “So you  _do_  want me to get fat!”

Kris brought his hands to his face and groaned, “Let’s just eat and then go shopping!” he muttered through his hands.

Minseok and Luhan were long gone.

x x x x x x

 

In the background, Luhan could hear the news being read over the TV or radio – he didn’t know which.

“Huge lightning storms have been spotted heading towards the capital leaving technological chaos in its path.” The monotonous voice of the reporter rang through Luhan’s head.

He had been worried about his dreams and had decided to talk to someone about it.

That person was Kim Junmyeon.

Luhan had been repeatedly told by everyone he knew that he could talk to Kim Junmyeon about his problems and seek advice and company from him and that he was particularly gifted in various spells. So he decided to seek his advice.

It wasn’t until Luhan had actually got to where he had arranged to meet Junmyeon that he had begun to get second thoughts.

What if he thought he was crazy?

What if Luhan was cursed or under some sort of spell?

What if he found out about Luhan’s ability?

Was he trustworthy?

It was only when those thoughts had gone round and round his head too many times that Junmyeon finally showed up at the arranged café with a sheepish smile and a wave in Luhan’s direction.

“Sorry for the wait! I had to deal with a few new entrants to the academy. Kim Junmyeon, nice to meet you.” He held out his hand to be shaken as he sat down across the table that Luhan sat on.

Luhan shook his hand, “Luhan, nice to meet you too.” He smiled.

“But, if you don’t mind me asking, why are there new entrants 3 months into the academic year?”

Junmyeon nervously chuckled, “They haven’t told me everything but I think the government moved them forcefully here for some reason. One of the guys is…. Special.” Junmyeon seemed to have a habit of scratching the back of his head whenever he was nervous.

Junmyeon suddenly smiled, “Anyways! We came here to talk about you!” Junmyeon laughed lightly.

Luhan smiled timidly, “Yeah…”

Junmyeon chuckled, “Don’t be nervous, I don’t bite.” He winked and folded his arms onto the table and Luhan did the same with his arms.

Luhan sighed and began to talk, “It all started about 2 months ago and I began to get these dreams full of blurs and faces of people I’d never met and the dreams began to get more and more extensive…”

Junmyeon’s face was serious, Luhan noted, and he really did seem to listen as he nodded every once in a while during Luhan’s explanation.

….

“So you’re saying that you began to have dreams where you met or nearly met Minseok before even meeting him in reality and then you met him and you saw similar themes from your dreams?” Junmyeon reiterated to confirm.

Luhan nodded with a solemn face.

Junmyeon looked thoughtful as he nodded back.

“It honestly doesn’t sound too bad but I can’t be sure. It sounds like premonitions to me.” He shared after a few seconds of silence with an unreadable eyes.

“You mean… Like seeing the future?”

Junmyeon chuckled, “Yes and no.” he shrugged. “Premonitions come in two types. They can predict the future exactly or they can show you a path. It seems like these premonitions are showing you a path and are seem to be getting you to meet these new people.”

Luhan listened intently.

Junmyeon bobbed his head up and down, “It’d be interesting to see what happened if you did gather all the people you saw in these dreams together!” he chuckled.

“But I wouldn’t worry too much, honestly. Just keep doing what you’re doing now.” Junmyeon smiled reassuringly.

Luhan looked doubtful for a second but decided to trust in Junmyeon.

He smiled and shook Junmyeon’s hand, “Thanks for your advice.”

Junmyeon grinned back and chuckled, “No problem. Glad I could help! Keep in touch and if there’s anything you think is weird, come talk to me.”

Luhan nodded.

x x x x x x

 

That same day, Luhan was heading towards the library with Kris and Minseok to study up on human biology for the exam in a few days’ time.

They had chosen to go the way through the main reception of the academy since there were fewer people.

It happened quickly as Luhan turned to his left to talk to Minseok who flanked him when he noticed a commotion around the entrance.

There were various soldiers bringing in a couple of men wrapped tightly in electrical paralysing chains.

But that wasn’t what shocked Luhan and made him freeze on the spot.

Through the gaps between the soldiers’ bodies, Luhan had caught a glimpse of the men’s’ faces.

A familiar man with glowing, kohl-rimmed eyes and the other man with a thin face and kind eyes.

Luhan gasped.

Why were they in chains?

Why were they being brought in by soldiers?

Why were they here?

But what worried Luhan the most, was that he was positive he had never seen them anywhere since they were wearing the traditional one-piece outfits from rural villages.

Yet Luhan recognised them.

Luhan knew them from his dreams.


	3. Surface Lights

Luhan didn’t want to believe his eyes but he had always had good eyesight.

He was frozen and openly stared as the soldiers led the two men into the hallway leading into the residence wings.

“They’re always so rude when they take in new students. You’d think those two men were criminals judging by the way they’re treating them!” someone exclaimed.

Luhan turned to see who it was only to bump into the very man who had begun to walk towards the hallway opposite the one the soldiers had filed into.

As their shoulders met, Luhan could’ve sworn that he had felt a small shock but he was given no time to react as the man had disappeared as quick as lightning and Luhan hadn’t even had a good look at his face.

x x x x x x

 

_Luhan was back in that forest with the thin air that was hard to breathe in and the bright green fauna that had been thriving on the fresh spring water that was undoubtedly nearby._

_A faint trickle of water could be heard but Luhan was focused on the faces of the two (now) very familiar men as they both stared at him._

_The one with the lined eyes was standing in front of the trees and there was a break in the canopy of the trees that allowed a natural spotlight on the pale-faced man._

_The other man with the spaced-out look was sitting on a branch in a tree and seemed to be covered in various different vines and flowers all over his skin but no longer looked in pain._

_To Luhan it seemed ironic since the last time he had seen the man he had been wrapped in retaining chains and now he was wrapped in vines._

_The world seemed to be paused in time – or at least the three men since Luhan could still hear the stream trickling._

_Suddenly there was a great flash of a bright white light and Luhan was blinded._

_He only opened his eyes when he heard a loud bang that made the ground beneath his feet tremble as if the mountain itself were angry._

_Luhan could only scream and move out of the way as the very tree that that man had been sitting on fell towards Luhan with flames lining its now exposed inside._

_The forest around Luhan erupted in flames and more bangs could be heard._

_The two men were nowhere to be seen._

x x x x x x

 

There was a massive storm heading straight towards the academy so all students had been told to either return home or remain in their residences until further notice.

Luhan’s group took this as an invitation to stay in Luhan’s apartment since it was big enough for all four of them and had enough food stocked up already.

A loud tremor made the floor shake and Luhan reached a hand out towards the dining table to steady himself whilst on his way to prepare the bedroom for four people.

He felt someone creep up behind him, “You okay? You’re not scared of a little storm, are you?” his voice seemed lower and rougher as they wrapped their arms around Luhan’s waist.

Luhan stiffened but relaxed once he heard the familiar voice, “Just a bit dizzy.”

The man laughed and Luhan could feel his cheeks move up as he laughed since his face was pressed into Luhan’s temple.

“Good good! Wouldn’t want the princess to faint from fear!” he chuckled again and Luhan turned around and pouted with a small frown.

“Minseok! Don’t make fun of me!” Luhan had his hands on his hips as he pulled away from Minseok’s grip.

Someone else was laughing in the background with loud, gasping guffaws that echoed through the apartment.

Luhan rolled his eyes and sighed. It was going to be a long few days whilst waiting for the storm to pass.

x x x x x x

 

Sometime towards the end of the storm, when it was a lot weaker and Luhan could wander through hallways without jumping at every bolt of lightning (which was a very often), everyone had decided to congregate in the various cafeterias in the academy.

And it was there that Luhan finally met the two people he had seen in his dreams.

He had begun by sitting with Junmyeon and Minseok when suddenly the loud cafeteria seemed to hush as two people in black hoodies stalked in and sat down in the high chairs reserved for the social rejects.

Now, Luhan had never thought of himself as the type of person to talk to complete strangers but he was _curious_.

Junmyeon, whom Luhan had told every detail of his dreams to, and Minseok who had found out during Luhan’s breakdown when he was very drunk, had urged Luhan to speak to those two men.

And he had tried to speak but the man with the thick eyeliner had glared at him so hard that Luhan worried his eyeballs would rot.

“What do you want?”

The man’s voice sounded surprisingly high-pitched and the other man seemed to be staring at the plant pots by the window that were half-dead since no one had bothered to water them.

Luhan took a small step back in fear, “You kinda look a bit… Alone. So I wanted to ask if you wanted to hang out with me and my friends?” Luhan asked and pointed at his table across the cafeteria, which prompted a huge wave from Minseok with a cute gummy smile and a nod from Junmyeon.

The man seemed to think for a few seconds before his scowl turned into a neutral expression with knitted eyebrows, “If you’re sure…” the man trailed off.

Luhan smiled and picked up both men’s arms and dragged them to his table to sit them next to Junmyeon.

Both of the men looked significantly less scary with small smiles on their faces rather than outright glares.

Luhan smiled a little and began to introduce everyone.

“This is Minseok.” He pointed, “He’s an ice ability and he’s really good at helping with homework so go to him if you need any help! Also, he’s really cute so he’s our group mascot.” Minseok laughed loudly at that and Junmyeon chuckled, biting into an apple.

It was at that moment that Kris and Tao walked in to sit next to Luhan who had sat on Minseok’s left.

The two strange men momentarily scowled again until Luhan smiled at the new arrivals.

“This is Junmyeon.” Luhan pointed, “He’s super smart and super dependable but he’s a total nag!” he laughed loudly and Junmyeon threw several of his grapes from his lunchbox at Luhan’s face.

Luhan, still laughing, pointed at Tao, “Tao. Crazy wushu guy. Don’t get in his way and don’t touch his Gucci.” Tao seemed to smile proudly at that and began to wave his small coin purse that he kept in his jean’s pockets.

“Gucci!” he exclaimed and smirked vainly before leaning towards his side onto Kris.

Since everyone was used to his random personality, no one reacted, but Luhan saw the quieter spaced-out man suddenly listen with interest.

“And this is Kris who may or may not be a dragon. I don’t know anything about him other than him liking Tao’s dick.”

Tao and Kris blushed furiously and the whole table, including the strangers, burst into laughter.

The man with the eyeliner giggled and wiped his eyes, “I’m Baekhyun and this is Yixing. We’re here because Yixing has the healing ability and the government thought that we were better off here rather than with my family.” Baekhyun’s tone grew more and more grave and Luhan couldn’t help but show the fear in his eyes when Baekhyun told him of Yixing’s ability.

And the worst thing is, Luhan wasn’t even worried that Yixing could take away his life energy.

Luhan was more worried that the government had managed to find him and bring him here as that meant that they were getting sharper.

Luhan didn’t want them to find out about his ability in case there were any purges.

Luhan was terrified.

x x x x x x

 

_Luhan couldn’t breathe._

_Try as he might, every movement he made caused his lungs to burn from lack of air._

_Opening his eyes, Luhan could only see blurs and shafts of light._

_His vision was filled with black spots until he could see no more and he felt his lungs fill with a cold substance._

_Luhan felt a tremor run through his spine and suddenly he could breathe and his eyes suddenly opened._

_He noticed the current around him – he was in some sort of body of water._

_He tried to move his limbs so that he could swim to the surface for a gulp of air but found that he was paralysed._

_But strangely, he couldn’t feel a lack of air._

_He could see the surface of the water from where he was, just below the surface and seemingly floating aimlessly yet not moving._

_He felt someone behind him but couldn’t turn to see who it was._

_Instead, Luhan felt his heart jump suddenly as a ray of lightning struck the surface of the water._

_He saw the charge spread outwards in the water until it disappeared and another ray struck just a little further away._

_More and more lightning began to hit the surface of the water and Luhan was left watching with bated breaths and a rapid pulse._

_He began to feel that same presence from before and suddenly there was a silhouette in front of him._

_It was only now that Luhan noticed the darkness of the water that was only being lit up by the lightning strikes._

_The strikes allowed enough light for Luhan to gather glimpses of the silhouette._

_A sharp chin and a nose with a high bridge was visible briefly before the light faded._

_Luhan waited for another strike._

_Short black hair framing a wide forehead._

_Then there were no more strikes._

“-han!”

_He could no longer feel the presence._

“-han!”

_His lungs burned from the salty water._

“Luhan!”

_He closed his eyes._

x x x x x x

 

“Luhan!” the loud voice made Luhan’s head feel bruised and he groaned.

“He’s awake!” a different but comforting voice whispered.

Luhan opened his eyes to see the bright light of morning and he covered his eyes with his hand.

Someone’s hand pried his arm off his face and Luhan’s eyes began to adjust to the bright surroundings.

Luhan frowned, “Junmyeon?” he was confused.

Someone else answered, “We called him because you weren’t waking up from your nightmare.” Minseok.

Luhan turned his head toward Minseok, “Okay…” he was squinting.

Minseok chuckled, “He’s not awake yet. But at least he’s not screaming and thrashing around.”

Junmyeon nodded and moved away from the bed to leave.

“Junmyeon!” Minseok shouted as Junmyeon opened the apartment door and then turned around to face Minseok.

Junmyeon offered a bright-eyed smile and nodded.

“Thanks!” Minseok exclaimed with a gummy smile and then Junmyeon was grinning and moving through the threshold to leave.

x x x x x x

 

“So what are you going to practise today?” Luhan asked with curious eyes as the pair of men walked through the door of the Ice Ability Hut.

Minseok gestured towards the little waterfall in the corner of the arena, “I’m going to try and freeze a moving target.” He stated.

Luhan momentarily felt a small pain in his chest – Jealousy? – But chose to ignore it with a nod and a polite smile.

Minseok headed towards the waterfall and Luhan sat in the viewing chairs where it was safe and comfortable. You wouldn’t want to get caught in a mist of ice shards as many had often experienced.

Minseok started off the way he usually does – he warmed up (oh, the irony) his ability by freezing small objects near him.

He began by freezing the wooden floorboards around him and then moved on to the flowers in the vase on the windowsill to his left.

Once he had done that, he turned towards the waterfall once more and Luhan noted the way his brows furrowed with concentration.

Nothing seemed to happen for a few seconds and Luhan had begun to wonder whether Minseok had gotten ahead of himself until small ice shards began to cover the area where the water landed in the waterfall.

Luhan was at the edge of his seat and he was focusing intently on the ice beginning to cover the fountain that created the small waterfall in the room.

He was so focused that he couldn’t notice Minseok’s trembling body and perspiring complexion.

It wasn’t until someone suddenly pushed Minseok that Luhan became fully aware of his surroundings once more.

He noticed, with a start, that a crows had begun to gather around Minseok to watch the spectacle but had begun to clear away now that the ice had broken.

Minseok was on the floor on his knees and looking up at a man that neither Luhan nor Minseok had ever seen before.

Sensing hostility, Luhan ran towards Minseok to help him up and confront the stranger with the strong, high cheekbones.

“Why did you push him?” Luhan exclaimed with rising volume as he pulled up a trembling and exhausted Minseok into his arms.

The man held up his hands with a smirk and a chuckle, “Hey, chill! I did him a favour.”

Luhan glared at the man but focused his attention on Minseok who was leaning on his shoulder and essentially leaning completely on Luhan.

The man seemed to notice this and grinned, “If he had done that any longer, he would’ve passed out.” Luhan felt his eyes widen at the revelation.

“And you don’t want him to stand out, trust me. It’ll only hurt both you and him.” The man shrugged and began to walk off, leaving a confused Luhan in his wake.

Luhan brought Minseok’s arm around his neck, “What do you mean? And who are you?” he questioned before the man was out of earshot.

The man turned his head slightly and grinned, “Kim Jongdae. And you’ll probably find that out soon enough.” And the he disappeared through the exit doors.

Luhan could hear a faint lightning storm rumbling in the distance and felt himself shudder at the memories of the storm in his dreams.

Cryptic responses and statements or not, he had to deal with Minseok who seemed to be struggling to breathe.

x x x x x x

 

Once Minseok had rested enough to be able to walk, Luhan dragged him to the nurse’s room next to the residence part of campus.

“Darling, we’re quite busy right now because of the recent storms so please put your friend in a bed and be prepared to wait for a while.” A nurse had hurriedly said when Luhan had lost patience when they ignored him.

He sighed, rolled his eyes, and then looked for an empty bed. Finding one in the corner of the white infirmary, he laid Minseok – now unconscious – in the bed.

Luhan decided to wait with Minseok for a nurse so he sat down on the chair provided near the bed and got some classwork out of his bag to pass the time.

They had been assigned to write an essay on the history of the telekinesis ability, which Luhan wasn’t happy about.

He was just finishing his second paragraph when he heard someone slide the curtains open to the little section where he and Minseok were.

He looked up to find Yixing and Junmyeon smiling at him.

“Some guy told me that Minseok might need some help?” Junmyeon questioned as both men walked in and slid the curtains closed again to stand around the bed.

Luhan squinted and pursed his lips, “He’s just tired, he’ll be okay.” Luhan stated and went back to his essay.

Junmyeon clearly wasn’t happy at his response and looked over at Yixing who discreetly nodded and stepped closer to Minseok.

Luhan suddenly jumped and went to stand in front of Yixing before he could move closer, dropping his pens and notebook on the floor as he stood.

He was glaring and Yixing looked confused, “What are you going to do to him?” he demanded loudly.

Yixing looked scared as Luhan shouted and glared at him and Junmyeon noticed Minseok stirring but chose not to mention it.

Yixing swallowed, “I’m going to heal him.” He stated with determined eyes and a challenging tone.

Luhan scoffed, “Heal him? He doesn’t need healing, he’s fine! And you would just steal his life force anyways, wouldn’t you?” he poked Yixing in the chest with a finger and if looks could kill, Luhan was very close to achieving it.

Junmyeon brought his hand to his head and was shaking his head and sighed, “Yixing just wants to help. He’s concerned.” He stated and looked at Luhan again.

Luhan’s eyes flicked between Junmyeon and Yixing repeatedly before sighing and sitting back down. “As long as Junmyeon trusts you.” He muttered and returned to his notebook.

Yixing looked at Junmyeon for confirmation with unsure eyes and Junmyeon nodded.

“I’m going to need a bowl of water with a few towels since he’s sweating a bit and I need to bring his temperature down.” He stated as he started to examine Minseok carefully.

Luhan stood to get a bowl of water from the nurses but Junmyeon held up a hand to stop him, “No need.” He smiled.

Yixing and Luhan looked puzzled as Junmyeon retrieved a bowl from a cupboard near the bed and put it down on the small bedside table.

“Uhhh… Junmyeon. There’s no water in there.” Luhan mumbled as Junmyeon began to crack his knuckles and look intensely at the bowl, as if expecting it to fill up automatically.

Junmyeon chuckled, “Oh, I know.” He grinned and suddenly the room felt a bit colder and mist started to gather above the bowl.

Luhan stepped further away from Junmyeon and closed one of his hands around Minseok’s delicate wrist. He failed to notice Minseok’s eyes opening and the twitch of his fingers.

The mist began to fade away just as water began to gather in the bowl and the temperature of the room return to normal once the mist was gone and the bowl was full.

Junmyeon turned to Luhan again and asked, “Where are the towels?”

Yixing and Luhan were looking backwards and forwards between the bowl in Junmyeon’s hands and Junmyeon.

Luhan pointed to the cupboard underneath the window next to Minseok’s bed, “When were you going to tell us about your water ability?” he broke the awkward silence.

Yixing suddenly snapped and began to help Junmyeon with cooling Minseok down using the towels and the cold water.

Junmyeon chuckled as he wiped some sweat off Minseok’s forehead and Luhan stood there, stock still. “Well, I’m here at the academy for knowledge purposes and not ability training so I didn’t really think it was important to tell anyone.” he explained.

Luhan nodded. To be honest, he understood. Luhan himself had always hidden his ability, but not because he was studying.

Luhan’s silence seemed to unnerve Junmyeon as he quickly stood up and walked towards Luhan, leaving the perfectly capable Yixing to heal the now conscious and confused Minseok.

Junmyeon stopped in front of Luhan and put a hand to his shoulder, “Why do you hide your ability?” he asked with a sad look in his eyes – pity.

Luhan gasped and paled, he pushed Junmyeon’s hands off his shoulders and looked down onto the floor to avoid his eyes – he knew Junmyeon would be able to see through his lies.

“I never developed an ability.” He mumbled and turned to move out of the small room but someone stood in his way.

It was the same guy as back in the training hut.

He was wearing an overconfident smirk on his face and his hair seemed wilder than last time, “You better be careful with yourself and Minseok.” He pointed.

“You wouldn’t want to get the both of you noticed by the wrong people.” And with that he nodded in Junmyeon’s direction and left the room, leaving a shocked Luhan in his wake.

His hands were trembling, both from the shock of Junmyeon possibly knowing about his ability and the ominous message left behind by Kim Jongdae.

He felt Junmyeon take a slow step closer to himself, “Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone about it but just don’t be so scared of me.” He paused, “And like Jongdae said, be careful about catching the Academy’s attention.”

And with that he was out and Luhan turned to see Minseok and Yixing watching the exchange with curious eyes.


	4. Of Rivers among the City

_It was hot. Too hot. And Luhan couldn’t breathe._

_It seemed like a recurring theme in these dreams – Luhan being unable to do something. Usually something rather important like breathing and moving._

_And however sarcastic Luhan was, he was not enjoying these dreams that were making his nights miserable every few days._

_But in this dream Luhan could move, which led to him wiping off his sweat gathering on his forehead and upper lip in the stale air._

_It was hard in the extreme heat that seemed to sap his strength and make his vision blurry but he attempted to focus on his surroundings to at least find out where he was._

_Just as Luhan managed to work out that he was standing in yet another forest – Why a forest? – A sudden bolt of lightning hit the tree in front of him and made the ground shake._

_Luhan noted, with fear, that he was far too close to a fast-flowing river and extremely tall trees surrounding said river but he had nowhere else to run to._

_It was as Luhan began to notice small details like the trees’ charred trunks that more bolts began to strike the trees and the noise reminded Luhan of a stampede of many horses._

_Luhan knew he needed to get away from the trees but there was nowhere else other than that river so Luhan resorted to trying to figure out what to do by attempting to remember what the teachers had told him in his early school years._

_He remembered that he had to get away from trees but Luhan’s panicked mind went blank when he tried to remember any more than that._

_And it was then that he felt a comforting presence behind him – from the river? – that drew him to turn around._

_He was met with the very familiar wide forehead and kind, gleaming eyes that could only belong to Junmyeon._

_This Junmyeon was not smiling and seemed to have his lips permanently shut but his eyes still shone with that familiar friendliness that Luhan always remembered._

_And suddenly Junmyeon had grabbed Luhan by his shoulders and pulled him._

_Luhan felt calm and at peace throughout those short few moments that he was free-falling through the air but his mind kept screaming at him that Junmyeon had just pulled him into a river with an angry current._

_Luhan’s body tensed as it hit the water with huge force that felt like hundreds of tiny needle pricks into his body._

_And although his body was sinking into the river and his vision was blurring through the murky water, Luhan could tell that his surroundings had changed._

_The sky was no longer blackened and littered with the occasional white light from a lightning strike, but a serene blue as the larger trees that Luhan could still see waved in a gentle breeze._

_And with that, Luhan felt comfortable enough to close his eyes and a he felt a peaceful aura overtake his conscience._

For once, he didn’t wake up confused or scared.

x x x x x x

 

“It is worth noting that space-time abilities – like teleportation, time-based abilities, and any telekinesis abilities – are often weaker and harder to train and develop than normal abilities.”

_Weak._

“This is due to not only the rarity of the ability but also because of the huge strain it puts on the human body. It is often considered undesirable for children to have these abilities since they are usually inherently weaker and will struggle to develop their ability.”

_Undesirable._

The professor droned on.

Minseok was eagerly making notes on his left and seemed to be paying close attention but Luhan was too focused on his own internal monologue to make notes.

His mother had always said how certain abilities should be purged – she was a government official, you see.

She had supported the purges before the current government and she continued to support the secret purges occurring throughout the country even now despite it being declared illegal by the government.

Luhan could always recall the way she would sneer whenever the news showed the faces of the ‘missing’ people. She would scoff and continue with her day-to-day routine.

“Time manipulation is often the ability that’s the least desired universally. Being the hardest on the body, time ability citizens cannot expect a long life and are significantly weaker. Not only that, there are many groups of people that seek to find these citizens and steal them from their families for personal use.”

Luhan wanted to scoff at the moment since he knew exactly what ‘personal use’ referred to – his parents had always used healing ability citizens enslaved by the government to heal their own family.

“Many time manipulation citizens are also often hidden away in an effort to not be discovered by these groups and thus suffer a life of hiding and are usually unhappy and depressed.”

Minseok seemed to frown lightly at this and pout as he wrote down his notes on the current subject.

“And that’s all that the government requires you to know about time ability citizens. Since they are so rare and hidden, not much is known about them as no studies have been made. Therefore, the lesson ends here and next lesson we will be discussing telekinesis.”

Luhan was anxious to leave the lecture hall.

He felt nervous – what if these people found out he was a telekinesis ability citizen?

But he was definitely comforted by the fact that he was not alone in his plight of hiding. Despite it being a morbid thought, Luhan was relieved that there were others in his situation.

Maybe one day he would meet someone similar to him.

He was shaken from his thoughts by Minseok placing a hand on his forearm as he grabbed Luhan’s attention.

“Hey! Want to go somewhere tonight? I’m free tomorrow so there’s no need to spend time revising tonight.” He eyes seemed to shine but maybe it was just a trick in the light.

Luhan knew he shouldn’t go since it was too risky. Perhaps he was being overly cautious but he had always been scared that he’d do something wrong and someone would find out.

So far only one person in Luhan’s childhood had found out – Park Chanyeol.

The son of a family of rich socialites who spent their days partying, Chanyeol had always played with Luhan whenever Luhan attended the same events.

……

The room was dimly lit by amber wall-lights and bellowing laughs from older men could be heard amongst the mindless chatter and laughter of the elite scattered across the large apartment.

Luhan had never been fond of these events after being forced to introduce himself and bow to countless strangers.

As a young boy, he preferred to play with the wild child that usually accompanied these events with deep black windswept curly hair with sparkling bright eyes full of childish excitement.

Which is how he found himself on the roof of a skyscraper with said child – Park Chanyeol – screaming into the cityscape.

He had to admit that Chanyeol was right about it releasing most of his pent-up anger but he wasn’t sure how he would explain his sore throat to his parents later.

“One day, I want to be able to fly around these buildings!” Chanyeol commented mindlessly with a childish giggle and a wide grin with a scrunched up nose.

Luhan scoffed, “How?” he rolled his eyes.

Chanyeol laughed loudly, “Well… Who knows? Maybe I’ve got the flight ability in me!” he winked at Luhan as he waved his long arms around.

Luhan sighed and walked towards the edge of the roof that was only defined by a metal bannister with a large gap allowing anyone to cross into the absolute edge of the skyscraper.

“With that personality you’re probably going to turn out with an electrical type ability.” Luhan commented dryly and Chanyeol went quiet as he followed Luhan towards the metal bannister.

Chanyeol was smiling as he leaned on the bannister, “Maybe.” He shrugged. “Who knows?” he was laughing in such a carefree manner that Luhan felt the sharp pain of jealousy in his chest.

He wished he had an ability other than the one his mother hated the most.

Chanyeol turned towards him with curious eyes, “I can’t wait till I turn 12! Then I’ll be able to take the test to find out my ability!”

Luhan forced a smile and nodded for Chanyeol’s sake, “It’s really rare for anyone to know for sure at that age though. Maybe you’d be luckier when you’re older?” Luhan commented.

Chanyeol hummed and shrugged and Luhan leaned his body into his crossed arms on the bannister, “It’s a worth a try? Sometimes you even hear of children with 5 years suddenly discovering they can freeze things!”

Chanyeol always sounded so stupidly excited but Luhan knew his childishness and naiveté was only a weakness.

Luhan shrugged, “I know someone who found out their ability last year but they were really disappointed.” His tone turned more sombre and his eyes looked down towards the bright and busy streets rather than the endless sky.

Chanyeol seemed to sense the change of atmosphere and turned to look at Luhan closely as Luhan hid his face into his crossed arms still leaning on the bannister.

“Why was he disappointed? Surely having an ability is a useful thing?” Chanyeol sounded confused but Luhan wasn’t sure since Chanyeol usually showed most of his emotions on his highly expressive face which was hidden from view because of Luhan’s arms.

“But his parents didn’t like that ability, so what was he supposed to do? If he told them he would’ve just embarrassed his family. They were too close to the government to have such a son.”

Chanyeol was silent and Luhan didn’t know what to think anymore.

“Luhan…” Chanyeol began to lean entirely into the bannister as he leaned his backside on it and spread his arms towards the empty space beyond the building.

Luhan heard a scratchy metallic sound but he chose to ignore it. It wasn’t as important as this conversion.

And so Luhan stood up and away from the bannister.

Chanyeol brought his arms back down and grinned at Luhan, “So what’s your ability? And why do you care if the government doesn’t like it?”

Luhan sighed and shook his head, “You wouldn’t understand. I know things that you don’t about the government.”

The wind was beginning to pick up and it was getting very cold.

Chanyeol seemed to frown. “Like what?”

Just as Luhan opened his mouth to reply, a loud snapping sound was heard and Chanyeol began to fall as the bannister began to fall apart.

Luhan was too shocked for his body to react fast enough but his mind had quickly acted and Chanyeol began to hover just beyond the edge of the building with his arms outstretched and his eyes shut tightly.

Both boys were breathing loudly, Luhan from over-exertion since he had never really used his ability in such a way and Chanyeol from adrenaline and fear.

 Chanyeol clenched and unclenched his fists and then slowly began to open his eyes.

Luhan was on his knees and staring at Chanyeol with wide, wet eyes.

His hand twitched and then Chanyeol was back onto the building and on his feet for a few seconds before his shaking legs gave out and he wound up kneeling in front of Luhan.

Both boys remained in eye contact with each other as they regained their breaths.

The silence was broken by Chanyeol suddenly laughing and clenching his stomach with one hand and pointing at Luhan with the other.

For a few seconds, Luhan prepared himself for being ridiculed by closing his eyes in shame but he quickly opened them when he felt Chanyeol’s hand on his shoulder and a sincere and serious tone from his usually childish friend.

“Did you think I would hate you for this? You saved my life. Thank you.”

A grin, a hard slap on his back and Chanyeol was heading back inside leaving a shocked Luhan with wet cheeks on the roof.

It was the last time he ever saw Chanyeol and Luhan had always blamed himself for scaring Chanyeol away.

……

But maybe it was time for Luhan to let loose and live a little. After all, the academy was supposed to widen his horizons from his usual hardcore studying to a more normal lifestyle like his parents wanted.

So Luhan accepted.

“Yeah, that sounds great! Where do we meet?” he was smiling widely at Minseok as they both left the lecture hall towards the cafeteria to join their group of friends.

Minseok paused to think for a few seconds before smiling back with his usual gummy smile, “I’ll pick you up at 10 tonight at your room?”

Luhan nodded just as they passed into the cafeteria and they both headed towards their usual table.

“Yo, midget!” Kris’ bellowing voice could be heard from across the cafeteria and Luhan struggled to repress his eye roll but Minseok only chuckled and scratched the back of his head once they had reached the table.

“Yo, green giant! Where did you buy those beans?” Minseok shouted back and Luhan heard Tao snort and snicker as he hid his laughing face.

Kris stuttered for a moment whilst the entire table laughed as Luhan and Minseok sat down in an empty space next to Yixing and Junmyeon.

Baekhyun and Tao were sitting across them in hysterics and Kris had turned on Tao, “Hey! You shouldn’t be laughing with them! You’re supposed to be on my side!”

Tao looked up and grinned, “Why should I be on your side when you won’t let Minseok take one of your golden eggs?” and then began to laugh even harder.

Junmyeon shook his head and facepalmed, “That one wasn’t even funny! Why are you laughing?”

Yixing was smiling a little, something Luhan had yet to see, and he nudged Junmyeon with his shoulder. “I think the whole point of friendship is to laugh at every joke, even if it mentions golden eggs and are only vaguely funny.”

Baekhyun suddenly slapped Yixing’s forearms and made a point to laugh obnoxiously loudly.

Luhan was only staring at Yixing, shocked at his sudden talkative personality, and only seemed to notice his surroundings again when he felt Minseok lean into him on his left side.

He turned towards Minseok but Minseok was too busy discussing something with Tao and Kris kept trying to butt in to recover his so-called ‘leadership’.

Luhan began to chuckle slightly at that thought and he felt Minseok lean into him and bit more so he pushed back slightly.

Surprisingly, Minseok didn’t pull away from the comforting contact that Luhan has established between their arms and torsos despite being in deep conversion with Kris and Tao beside them.

So Luhan began to talk to Baekhyun who seemed excitable yet hesitant to speak. Whether of shyness or some other reason, Luhan didn’t know, but he did seem interesting.

“Baekhyun, isn’t it?” Luhan began and Baekhyun turned towards him from his right side.

He nodded, “Yeah, although you have an accent… Where are you from?” he questioned with curious eyes behind his fringe.

Luhan flushed a little, “Ah, sorry… I’m from China.”

Baekhyun seemed shocked, “Wow! That’s cool!” he grinned and Luhan visibly relaxed.

“You speak Korean really well!” he was laughing and speaking quite loudly but Luhan didn’t mind since it seemed like it was just a Baekhyun thing.

Luhan gave him a lopsided grin and scratched the nape of his neck with one finger, “Thanks.” The conversion seemed to turn a bit awkward as they both had no idea what to talk about despite being surrounded by their friends who were eagerly chatting to each other.

Luhan cleared his throat, “So… Why were you in chains and dragged into the academy?” he began.

Baekhyun began to tense up and frown so Luhan suddenly added, “If you don’t mind me asking…!”

Baekhyun had his shoulders hunched up and he was frowning for a few seconds before he relaxed and sighed again.

“We’re not really supposed to tell but Yixing was basically forced to come here because of his ability and I don’t want to leave him by himself so I came with him.”

Luhan nodded to show that he understood and Baekhyun continued, “And the chains were because the army is paranoid that Yixing was somehow going to kill them. Nevermind that the naïve idiot can’t even eat an egg without apologising to the unfertilised embryo inside it.”

He seemed to smile and roll his eyes at the memory.

Luhan nodded and smiled, “I understand. Sorry, I just wanted to ask, to be honest. Curiosity killed the cat, after all!”

Baekhyun chuckled, “No problem! But satisfaction brought it back.” He winked with a flirtatious smile and Luhan suddenly felt Minseok’s eyes on him.

Luhan chuckled with him whilst letting his hand rest on Minseok’s forearm, he had no idea why he did it but he noticed that both he and Minseok suddenly felt significantly less tense at the extra contact.

Baekhyun began, “But if you don’t mind me asking, now that you know Yixing’s ability, could you tell me yours? I’m really curious about what an honours student like you has.”

Luhan knew that Baekhyun was only asking in pure innocent curiosity but he couldn’t help but suddenly feel short of breath as the question hung in the air.

He felt like the whole cafeteria had turned to him to hear his answer and a part of Luhan knew that it was all part of his imagination and that nobody but maybe the people on his table could hear his conversion thanks to the busy atmosphere of the cafeteria.

But Luhan had always been scared.

And Luhan couldn’t shake the look of hurt and sadness on Baekhyun’s face as he suddenly pushed his chair back and left the cafeteria quickly.

He ran and ran to his room across the entire academy and failed to notice Minseok running behind him in his panic.

It was only when Luhan got to his room and was about to close the apartment door behind him that he noticed Minseok as he put his foot between the door and the wall.

“Are you okay? Do you want to talk about it?” Minseok seemed out of breath from the running but he still had his eyebrows furrowed and seemed genuinely worried about Luhan.

So Luhan opened the door wider and Minseok stepped through the threshold of Luhan’s room.

Luhan gestured to the sofa around the coffee table in the room with an entire wall of windows and Minseok walked towards the sofa as Luhan closed the door.

Minseok sat on one side of the three-seater and Luhan was sitting cross-legged on the space next to him facing the window.

They were silent for a few moments as Luhan tried to calm his heartbeat and slow his breathing.

Minseok chose to break the silence, “Why did you panic?”

Despite being such a simple question, Luhan froze and his whole body suddenly became tense.

This seemed to be enough of an answer for Minseok who continued despite Luhan lowering his head so that his eyes could only see his own lap.

“Why don’t you want people to know your ability? Is it because you don’t have one?” Minseok’s tone sounded patient and worried, not intrusive.

Luhan trusts Minseok not to spill his secret but he also doesn’t trust Minseok.

Because whilst Chanyeol didn’t call him weak and undesirable all those years ago, he still disappeared from Luhan’s life.

Because whilst his mother had always promised that she’d always be supportive of Luhan, in the same breath she had cursed those born with ‘weaker’ abilities like his own.

Luhan wanted to trust someone, anyone, but his trust had always been misplaced and he didn’t want to make the same mistake again whilst he was so close to achieving his dream of becoming a medic.

“You can trust me, Luhan. You know you can so please just tell me. I promise I won’t tell anyone.” Minseok’s words seemed carefully thought-out and calculated.

He felt a hand run through his hair and Luhan shivered. The hand froze and began to pull away so Luhan lifted his hand to hold Minseok’s hand in place.

Once Minseok’s hand began to caress his hair and scalp once more, Luhan lowered his hand back to his lap.

Minseok sighed and moved his hand to Luhan’s neck and shoulders to gentle massage the knots out of Luhan.

Luhan’s back straightened and then arched at the touch and Luhan lifted his head to sigh as he let it rest against the back of the sofa.

Minseok chuckled and brought his other hand to caress Luhan’s face and Minseok smiled as Luhan leaned into his hand with his eyes focused on Minseok’s own.

They both stayed like this for a few minutes as Minseok forced Luhan to relax until Luhan decided that he could just say it.

“I have telekinesis but I don’t want anyone to know.” Minseok’s hands slowed down as Minseok focused on listening to Luhan’s words instead.

“That’s why I panicked. Because I’m weak and don’t want anyone to know.” Luhan closed his eyes as he confessed and missed the affection and sadness that suddenly laced Minseok’s glistening eyes.

“You’re not weak just because of your ability or whether you want anyone to know or not. Your ability doesn’t define you, Luhan.” Minseok whispered and he put his two hands on Luhan’s cheeks.

Luhan opened his eyes and Minseok swallowed, “Ice ability citizens are always expected to be these cold unfeeling people yet here I am, Luhan.”

Silence.

“Here I am feeling my heartbeat synchronise with yours. I’ve never behaved like they expected me to and I never will. It’s about being individuals and standing out, Luhan. Not conforming to the stereotypes.” Minseok paused for breath and began again.

“Society is always telling what different abilities should and shouldn’t do and that people who are different cause chaos but the world always needs a bit of innovation. I don’t know why you don’t want anyone to know, maybe it’s because you don’t want to become tied down by your ability but you shouldn’t be scared of your friends Luhan.”

Luhan felt tears slide down his cheeks as he brought up his hands to cup over Minseok’s own hands on his cheeks.

Luhan shook his head and whispered, “That’s not what I’m scared of…”

Minseok seemed confused, “Then why?...”

Luhan swallowed and looked towards the window once more, “I know what happens to people like me since my mother never stopped talking about it. You hear the professors talking about missing people and you see them on the news but my family know better.”

Minseok listened closely and inched his head closer to Luhan so he could hear Luhan’s whispers.

“My family work with the government to get rid of them. Those people aren’t missing, Minseok. They’re either dead or enslaved, which is kind of the same thing anyway.”

Minseok’s eyes widened but sensing an oncoming panic attack from Luhan from his increasingly short breaths, he decided to focus on relaxing the man before continuing the conversation.

He pulled his hands away from his cheeks and began to massage his thighs lightly and he could see a faint red tint on Luhan’s cheeks but chose not to comment.

“How do you know what and why would they be… Dead?” Minseok seemed to stumble over the last word.

Luhan scoffed but quickly sighed as he began to relax from Minseok’s hands, “My parents work with the government. The government thinks we’re weaker and useless since they can’t find an industry for us and have no way of controlling us. I’m surprised that no one knows, to be honest.” He stated as he looked at Minseok closely, admiring his long lashes and fluffy cheeks.

Minseok shook his head, “I don’t think the government is all that bad… I don’t know about what your parents have been telling you but the government seems nice to me and has always helped me so maybe it’s just what your parents say.”

Luhan suddenly pushed Minseok away and stood up from the sofa, an expression of anger and betrayal clearly evident across his face.

“I knew you wouldn’t believe me….” He brought his hands to his face.

Suddenly Minseok heard a loud sob and he stood up to comfort Luhan but was only faced with Luhan’s red crying face and a finger pointing towards the door.

“The door is that way, Minseok.” Luhan said with a tone of finality.

Minseok nodded, knowing that nothing he could say now could possibly make Luhan forgive him. So with a heavy heart and a sad face, he opened the apartment door and left.

Luhan stood still for a few minutes whilst he hurried to restrain his sobs until he moved to his bedroom.

Maybe a nap would make the pain in his chest fade away.

He should’ve never trusted someone else.

x x x x x x

 

A man circled another man that was sitting at a desk with a laptop in a dark room.

The light from the laptop screen made the cheekbones of the smaller man sitting at the desk appear brighter than the rest of his face.

The man previously doing the walking suddenly stopped and leaned onto the back of the chair of the sitting man.

“Kim Jongdae. You will use this computer to do what we want and then we won’t have to hurt you. Doesn’t that sound nice?” the older man had a greasy and cocky tone that made Jongdae scoff.

“Why should I when whatever I do to help you will only hurt the people you should be protecting?” Jongdae heard before he saw the hand that slapped his face from his behind.

His put his hand on his left cheek and felt a tingling pain accompanied by spreading numbness.

The taller man stood up straight and chuckled, “Because, Chen, Kim Minseok’s powers look very promising.” He teased before leaving the dark room.

Leaving Jongdae to let his head fall onto the desk and groan.

He was barely aware of what he was doing until he felt his clenched fist hit the wooden desk and scatter small cracks in the wood.


	5. Flashes

Jongdae was never one for blindly protecting someone. In fact, that was one of his rules when he got a name in the streets – Chen.

He had always promised that it would always be him and only him because having anyone else was dangerous but things never usually went to plan.

Jongdae was 11 when his parents disappeared ( _Died_. Jongdae’s mind would always remind him).

It was a sticky situation since Jongdae was young enough to not fully understand yet old enough to remember what happened for the rest of his life.

And even after 12 years of living alone and surviving alone, Jongdae still remembered and missed those mornings when his father would wake up early just to cook his breakfast and then mother would arrive home just in time for dinner later into the night.

……….

“Jongdae! Can you make the beds for dad while I cook something for us? Mummy will be coming home soon.” Jongdae could hear his father’s request from his room.

“Sure, dad!” he shouted into the hallway before disappearing into his parents’ rooms to make the bed.

It was only after Jongdae could detect the strong smell of kimchi from his room that his mother finally got home.

He ran to the front door so fast that his tiny legs couldn’t keep up and it resulted in him falling in front of the front door once he finally stopped.

Looking down at his bruised knees, Jongdae’s eyes began to water and he heard a small chuckle from above him.

His mother suddenly crouched in front of him in her formal business clothes and smiled as she ruffled his hair, “I’m home, Jongdae.”

He sniffed and attempted to smile back but his eyes were still watering from the pain. His mother frowned and lifted him into her arms with a small mumble about how heavy he was before she headed to the bathroom.

She made him sit on the closed toilet seat whilst she grabbed the small medicine kit from underneath the sink and Jongdae began to wipe his tears on his sleeves.

When she turned around with a small smile and began to check for cuts and apply some ice, Jongdae began to smile.

The strong smell of kimchi was even stronger now and Jongdae’s stomach growled loudly as he began to wonder what his dad was cooking.

“Miyoung, dinner’s ready!” Jongdae heard his dad call his mum and after she thoroughly checked Jongdae for any more bruises and cuts, she led him to the small dining room next to the living room.

Jongdae’s mouth watered at the sight of the kimchi stew and various meat side dishes that his dad had prepared for the small family.

He hurriedly sat down and prepared to eat but suddenly stopped and waited for his parents to start.

His mother chuckled, “Our Jongdae is so respectful, isn’t he Youngjin?” she exclaimed with glee as they both grabbed some beef from one of the side dishes, allowing Jongdae to begin to pour some of the stew into his small bowl.

As soon as the bowl was full, he couldn’t resist and barely heard his parents’ laughter at his display as he scoffed down the hot soup and drank water every once in a while to ease the burn in his throat; both from the kimchi and the hot soup.

It was a wholesome and filling meal and Jongdae was suddenly full of energy and demanded playtime from his parents.

“Daddy! Show me the lights!” Jongdae shouted loudly as he sat down on the sofa with his dad on his left and his mum changing in the bedroom.

Youngjin laughed loudly and pulled Jongdae into his lap as they both looked at the city through the glass windows of the apartment.

The silhouette of the cityscape could be seen in the night from the streetlights and the outline of buildings was lined by the various apartments with their lights as they prepared for a night.

Youngjin was smiling with an arm around Jongdae’s chest as he raised his hand in the air and then suddenly scrunched it into a fist.

The sky was silent for a few seconds before it erupted into various streaks of bright white lightning strikes that danced around the city followed by the thunder that made Jongdae feel like the ground was growling at the inhabitants of the sleeping city.

The lightning illuminated the entire city for seconds at a time and Jongdae could make out each pedestrian crossing the road as well as each antenna on a skyscraper.

It was nights like these spent with his parents that made Jongdae feel loved.

And then his mother joined in front the entrance of the living room with a finger pointed at the sky, creating a small twister in the sky that distorted the light that reached the buildings.

It was a fearsome sight but Jongdae couldn’t help but be in awe of his parents’ creations.

In that moment, Jongdae promised to himself that he was one day going to be strong enough to be able to create the ‘light shows’ (as his 11-year-old self called them) to amaze his partner and maybe even his own children.

“Daddy, Mummy, when I grow up… I want to have the lightning ability too!” Jongdae exclaimed with open arms and an excited grin.

His parents chuckled and embraced him on the sofa as the lightning began to dwindle and die out.

“One day, we’ll teach you our tricks.” His mother promised in his ear with a small kiss to Jongdae’s temple.

…

Jongdae woke from his sleep from a loud bang and a scream. There were more screams and angry voices coming from the hallway across his closed bedroom door.

Jongdae could hear someone crying and he heard many footsteps followed by glass smashing.

Could there be a robbery?

His parents had always told him to stay in his room if someone ever came into their house and hide himself. They always told him they would protect Jongdae from the bad guys.

So Jongdae swallowed thickly and then got off the bed as quietly as possible to creep to his closet. He opened the sliding doors and felt around in the dark between his clothes until he felt a small ring connected to the wall.

He pulled and a small door came with it and Jongdae walked into the closet and through the door, making sure to close the closet and hidden door behind him and sat down in the small dark space.

He was told by his parents to always wait until his parents came to get him.

So he waited.

And waited.

Until his eyes could bear no more and slipped shut and nothing but soft snores could be heard in that small space.

…

He awoke from his rumbling stomach many hours later and attempted to look around the small space but it was too dark.

Jongdae listened out for a few minutes for any more noises and when he was satisfied that the bad guys had been chased out by his parents, he opened the small door and walked through the clothes in his closet and opened the closet door.

He was greeted by the midday sun shining down on his ransacked room.

His mattress was torn up with claw marks scattered across different surfaces.

Jongdae noticed the tattered remains of his quilt that his parents had made were scattered across his room and his curtains weren’t in better shape.

It was safe to say that his room was destroyed, bearing no resemblance to the room that he had fallen asleep in the night before that his parents meticulously cleaned to keep free of any spiders or bugs since they knew Jongdae was afraid of them.

As tears pricked at his eyes, Jongdae turned to leave the room to find his parents to quell his rising fear.

He wandered through the house with careful steps because of the shards of broken glass and mirrors that lined the floors.

He wandered around the kitchen and walked towards to the fruits basket that had survived in the windowsill of the kitchen and reached for an apple that he ate as he walked down the hallway once more.

Jongdae was beginning to panic as he wandered through the silent apartment that bore nothing but destruction – even the sofa was ripped to shreds.

The sofa which he had sat on with his parents last night as they embraced him and told him the stories of his family.

He stopped in front of the closed door that separated him from his parents’ room.

Something told Jongdae that something was wrong since it was the only door in the entire apartment that had survived unscathed.

Nothing could’ve prepared for the sight that would be engrained into his mind for years to come as Jongdae turned the doorknob and opened the door.

The sight of his parents’ ripped and mangled bodies lying in their own blood made Jongdae retch and he found himself disposing of his stomach’s contents on the carpeted floor of his parents’ bedroom, half-eaten apple left forgotten on the floor near the door.

Every time he glanced up at his parents, another wave of nausea took him and left him shaking and retching until nothing but a clear water-like substance came out and let Jongdae feeling hungry with an extreme lack of appetite.

He tried to stand up but quickly decided that pulling himself up using the doorknob would be a better idea after his various attempts at standing up ended up leaving him weak in the knees – and not in a good way – and let his body hit the floor again.

After the initial disgust faded, Jongdae was left staring at his parents’ lifeless bodies as he kneeled next to his mother and stared at the way her hands began to slowly bruise in his own hands.

He was morbidly fascinated by the way their bodies decomposed ever so slowly and he used his curiosity for the process to distract him from the extreme sadness that sometimes gripped him every time he let his mind entertain the thought that he had lost his parents.

Jongdae remained in the apartment for days, tidying up what he could and eating the pantry’s supply of tinned and canned food.

Until the stench of his parents’ bodies attracted seemingly ever bug in the vicinity and Jongdae could no longer sleep in his mother’s cold embrace and had to close the door to the room so that the maggots wouldn’t spread to his living space.

He knew he would eventually have to leave before the neighbours could alert the authorities of the rotting corpses of his parents and the destroyed home.

But Jongdae wanted to spend the last few days in his parents’ shadows until he was brave enough to face a world without them.

If there was one thing that his father always drilled into his head, was that bad things happen and Jongdae should always be ready to move in.

His parents had always been moving around the country and Jongdae had never really understood why. But during that week as he saw his father’s previously happy face slowly decomposed and become infested by maggots, he realised that he had always known and his parents had always told him – he had just ignored it in his childish innocence.

The signs had always been there.

His parents would sometimes leave for the entire day and come back looking over their shoulders every few seconds.

They would always make sure that Jongdae knew how to defend himself.

They would always be eager in letting Jongdae practise his own electric abilities unlike the other kids at his school who were scared of their abilities.

They’d always reminded Jongdae of the small backpack that was hidden away in the pantry in case there was ever an emergency.

The small backpack that Jongdae now bore on his narrow shoulders as he left the apartment building.

He had noticed the stuff that his parents had always described in the small bag – A small canister for water, a ration of tinned food, even a thin blanket and a torch.

He had hurriedly stuffed a small photograph of his family – the one taken at his school for parents’ evening last year – in the front of his bag and left behind the now blackened bits of flesh that used to be his parents.

And he would learn to survive alone, just as his parents had done. Just like his parents had told him to always be prepared to do.

…………

The engraved memories burned in Jongdae’s mind as he walked through the darkened street in the dark and seedy part of the capital.

The side which nobody ventured in unless they knew what they were doing.

But Jongdae knew what he was doing and he clearly heard the other man’s voice instructing him to do as he was told or one of his friends would disappear.

So Jongdae reminded himself of Minseok’s happy smile as he talked to Luhan in the cafeteria as he burned out the few lights that illuminated the street.

He reminded himself of Tao’s happy and relaxed smile as he sat in Kris’s lap surrounded by his protective arms as he blocked out the screams of the woman he had killed with a raised fist that delivered a high current to her body.

She had screamed before her body shook in violent spasms before hitting the floor with a loud thump.

Jongdae sneered in disgust, not at the smell of burnt flesh but at himself, and he opened the door the woman had previously stood in front of.

He wondered into the smoky room and held back a cough as he eyed the gathering of now-silent men that looked him up and down before they stood up, a weapon in each of their hands, and ran towards him.

There was a thunderstorm that night.

x x x x x x

 

Minseok had no idea how to talk to Luhan after the other’s outburst.

Minseok didn’t know what he did wrong but he still felt like he had done something wrong. After all, Luhan had entrusted to him what seemed to be his biggest secret yet he had reacted in such a negative way.

Minseok had questioned Luhan, instead of supporting him. He had betrayed Luhan’s trust.

And he had no idea how he was supposed to apologise for that. He just wanted to ask Luhan what that conversation had meant.

What did he mean by ‘dead’? Surely they weren’t actually  _dead_ … Right?

Minseok’s parents had always told him that the government was peaceful and had found a way of keeping society in a constantly peaceful environment after the civil wars through the means of classification, as they had called it.

Minseok was in the middle class and that meant that he had lived a good life where he didn’t have to fear anything or count his coins.

Many were unhappy since the classification system meant that certain abilities were less desired than others, like telekinesis for example, but the country was generally peaceful.

There hadn’t been any rebellions since his grandparents’ youth – or so he thought.

Luhan’s words had weaved their way into his brain and Minseok found himself thinking about what he had seen and heard in his sheltered life even as he had practised in the ice ability hut.

Icicles formed around his body in the rink as Luhan’s words echoed in his mind –  _“Those people aren’t missing, Minseok. They’re either dead or enslaved.”_  – and Minseok found himself remembering moments of his childhood that he had forgotten.

x x x x x x

 

_“It has just been announced by the local authorities that another citizen is missing – Choi Minho, a light manipulation ability citizen. The police have teamed up with experts to search for the missing man believed to have disappeared last night in his apartment but hope is scarce. The man was known to not have any immediate family and-“_

The news report was switched off by the remote held in his mother’s hands.

Minseok looked up and into his mother’s eyes as she moved to hug him after putting the remote on the sofa that Minseok was sitting on.

Minseok had assumed that her shivering was because of the cold temperature – it was winter, after all.

But 15 years in hindsight, he knew it was something else.

The man – Choi Minho – had been his father’s friend and Minseok had met him a few times before.

Minho was a man that boasted a lot of self-confidence and charisma but Minseok had seen him on multiple occasions look over his shoulder if the police were walking down the road or even just a police car.

Minseok’s mother had always told him it was just because Minho was a man with many fears but perhaps Minseok should’ve questioned that after his question of Minho’s ability left Minho in cold sweat and laboured breaths.

Minseok had always chosen to ignore the signs but they had always been there.

Those missing people – the lower classification ones – where never found again.

And if some unfortunate had found them, it was either their broken and lifeless bodies or a half-dead outer-shell of their personality with a bruised and battered body that quickly gave up on life.

Choi Minho had been one of the ones that had turned up dead and in two pieces in the Han River shores just three weeks later.

The night that Minho’s body was found, Minseok was reading his favourite storybook book in the living room when he overheard his parents discussing their abilities.

They were hushed whispers of “Thank the gods we have such a respected ability.” And “I only ask that Minseok inherited the ice ability too.” But Minseok had been too focused on the fairytale of the unicorn that healed an entire village before being allowed to become the leader of the village to fully understand what his parents were talking about.

It was a story of redemption since the unicorn had previously been a man cursed to suffer as an animal after he refused to heal his dying sister.

It was a story that Minseok loved.

It was only when he turned 13 and accidentally froze his entire bedroom that he saw his parents breathe a sigh of relief instead of shouting at him for destroying his bedroom that he began to think back to what his parents had said.

But he had ignored it.

And it had taken another 12 years before Minseok had even entertained the idea that his parents  _knew_  after Luhan’s words nestled into his mind.

Just what had he been blind to throughout his entire life?

x x x x x x

 

The population of the hut around him stood still in shock after Minseok’s ice suddenly spread to envelop the entire glass dome as the sun shone through and refracted into hundreds of tiny rainbows as the ice acted as a prism.

Minseok wasn’t sure what he had done but maybe it was his sudden realisation that had caused his outburst of power.

He flushed a little and ducked his head to look at the floor as embarrassment took over his mind rather than Luhan’s words.

He unclenched his fists as he stood straight again and waved his hand in the air and the ice began to slowly shatter.

Most of the students that were in the dome were watching in silent awe and respect as Minseok displayed his strength but some went back to practising.

After all the ice had been shattered, Minseok had bowed and mumbled an apology before running out of the dome and into the academy halls.

He needed to find Luhan and talk to him.

x x x x x x

 

Luhan was in the cafeteria with Baekhyun and Tao as they ate their way through an entire gateau au chocolat.

They had decided to cheer themselves up with cake after Luhan had come crying into Tao’s room and Tao had suggested chocolate cake and later bumped into Baekhyun in the hallways.

They knew they would regret it the next day when they would undoubtedly put on a few pounds but at that moment, they couldn’t have cared less since the chocolate sauce was  _warm_  and it tasted  _divine_  when poured on the chocolate glazing of the cake.

“My mother always told me that chocolate cake heals hearts.” Tao had mumbled in between bites of the rich cake and Luhan and Baekhyun were quick to agree with small grunts as they stuffed more cake into their mouths.

It was only after their plates were empty that they stopped to ask questions.

Or in Luhan’s case, answer questions.

Tao was the first and he sent a gaze so threatening to Luhan in an attempt to tell him that he can’t leave, that Luhan was suddenly frozen in his seat.

Tao lifted a brow and crossed his arms and legs as he leaned back into his seat, “So?”

Luhan rolled his eyes and leaned back as well but with his hands under his thighs to stop his fidgeting and Baekhyun was watching him closely, “So what?” Luhan huffed.

Tao scoffed, “What happened? Did Minseok have a small dick or what?”

Luhan suddenly started coughing and choking on air and Baekhyun was hitting his back as he help back his giggles with his free hand.

Luhan looked up at Tao and exclaimed, slightly out of breath from his choking fit, “What?” his voice was high pitched and sounded more like a squeal than a man’s voice.

Baekhyun rolled his eyes and rested his head on the table and a mumble was heard, “So you two didn’t suddenly decide to sleep with each other after all that time spent eyeing each other since the beginning of the year?”

Luhan scoffed, “ _No_ , we didn’t. And how would you know about the beginning of the year anyway? You weren’t there!”

Baekhyun rolled his eyes as he stood straight once more and pointed at Tao with his thumb, “He has a working mouth, y’know?” he raised his eyebrows and waved his thumb in Tao’s direction across the table.

Luhan rolled his eyes and sighed loudly, “Of course Tao told you…”

“Well? What happened if it wasn’t the size of Minseok’s dick that made you cry?” Tao questioned teasingly.

Luhan groaned and opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by Baekhyun, “Those are the noises you probably made as Minseok showed you his  _treasure_ , right?” Luhan wasn’t sure if it was Baekhyun’s rising eyebrows or his wink that made Luhan understand the innuendo that little bit faster.

Luhan shook his head, “Guys… Just stop. Nothing happened between Minseok and me other than me losing all my trust in him.” He stated.

Tao and Baekhyun stared for a few seconds before Tao suddenly wolf-whistled and commented quietly, “Wow… What did Minseok do? Forget the condoms that we gave him?”

Luhan slammed his fist on the table, making the other men jump, and he shouted, “Stop joking about stupid things and listen to me!”

Baekhyun rolled his eyes, “We would listen if you weren’t being so cryptic and just told us the full story instead of leaving us to guess…” he winked.

Tao nodded and laughed, “He’s right, Lu.”

Luhan sighed, “Okay… Where to start.” He paused to think.

Baekhyun teased, “The beginning would be nice!” he was rewarded with a slap to his shoulder by Luhan and Baekhyun began to pout, “Okay! Okay! I’ll wait!” he was laughing.

x x x x x x

 

“Wait, so what ability are you? Why were you hiding it from us?” Baekhyun questioned after Luhan finished telling the tale, leaving out the bits about Chanyeol and his own ability.

Luhan froze and gulped as he looked down at his clammy hands. He had already told enough and he was beginning to get nervous.

He knew he could trust Tao but he didn’t know Baekhyun well enough.

Baekhyun sighed, as if understanding, “You can tell me since I know how you feel, y’know? I’m light ability, as you already know, and I was kindasorta kidnapped from my own house in the mountain and I don’t know whether my grandma is still alive or not because mine and Yixing’s abilities.”

Baekhyun had a point, but Luhan was scared. He was always scared.

“Then I guess I can share mine and we can help protect each other.” Tao had suddenly stepped back into the conversation after sitting in silence the entire time to hear Luhan’s story.

He stood straight and uncrossed his arms to look between Luhan and Baekhyun with an unusually serious face.

“I have the Chronokinesis ability.” He simply stated and let the other two men process what he had said.

Baekhyun was the first to react with another unusually sombre face, “That’s a really rare ability… And one that requires a lot of hiding, too.”

Tao nodded and sighed, “It’s the reason Kris and me left our old country. They found out so we had to leave. He also has a pretty rare ability but it’s not my story to tell, you’ll have to ask him.”

Baekhyun nodded with lips in a thin line, “Fair enough.”

“So the three of us have some of the most hated abilities out there, huh?” Luhan mumbled.

Baekhyun pouted, “Don’t forget to include Yixing. Poor guy has one of the rarest too.”

Luhan and Tao nodded.

The group lapsed into silence as they all bonded in their feelings of fear.

Luhan broke the silence with a small cough to clear his throat and then he held out his hand, palm facing the table, “Truce. A truce that the four of us, including Yixing,” he looked at Baekhyun and Baekhyun nodded, “will protect each other and hide each other’s abilities.”

Tao nodded and smiled as he put his hand on top of Luhan’s outstretched hand.

Baekhyun smiled slightly too and nodded as he put his hand on top of the others, “I think Yixing would appreciate the support too.”

They left the cafeteria that day feeling closer than ever and perhaps just a little bit prouder of their own abilities.


	6. I See Fire

Luhan, Tao, Baekhyun, and Yixing had decided to meet up to practise their abilities since none of them had had any proper training. The only problem, according to Luhan, was where to practise safely.

“I think we should go to Luhan’s room since nobody lives on his floor anyway – it’s super empty since it’s the new and expensive block – and nobody ever visits since Luhan’s a prude.” Tao had exclaimed in the cafeteria at lunch with the aforementioned three people.

They had grown close in the past couple of weeks since the truce was made.

Luhan faked a gasp and brought a hand to his chest, “You hurt my feelings, Tao!” he whined with a quiet sniffle afterwards.

Baekhyun was chuckling as Tao replied, “It’s true! Especially since you haven’t made up with Minseok yet! He must be feeling so neglected, poor boy…” he wiped at his eyes and made a fist towards the ceiling.

Yixing snorted a little and Baekhyun elbowed him. They were sitting in the joint table with Tao and Luhan on one side and Baekhyun with Yixing in the other.

“Poor guy must be getting blue balls!” Yixing added quietly and Tao suddenly erupted in his loud, childish guffaws that echoed across the cafeteria and merited the dirty looks that various people gave the small group.

Suddenly a tall man was next to Tao shaking his head as he sat down, “Honestly, honey… I could hear your laughter from across campus.” Kris commented with a smirk as he laid his arm across Tao’s shoulders and leaned into the seat.

Tao chuckled and put his hand on Kris’s thigh, “Is that your way of saying that my screams are too loud?”

They were both giving each other bedroom eyes and Yixing was awkwardly reading the menu in the centre of the table whilst Baekhyun and Luhan were communicating through pursed lips and wide eyes.

Suddenly Luhan saw Junmyeon approach the table and slide next to Yixing, directly across the couple who were now exchanging flirtatious whispers and licking their lips.

Junmyeon frowned before his expression turned into more of a shocked rather than and confused frown.

Luhan cleared his throat, still focusing on Baekhyun’s suddenly immensely interesting mole near his eyebrows.

“So… You guys gonna take it to the bedroom or are y’all gonna make me vomit up my chicken nuggets?” Luhan finally broke the silence.

Tao and Kris looked around the group with flushed faces and small mumbled apologies as they stood up, “Sorry… We kinda forgot we had company there…” Kris said quietly before Tao nodded to all of them and pulled Kris to the exit of the cafeteria.

Junmyeon spoke up, “Well, that was a good way to finish our lunch break.”

Yixing snorted and shook his head, “The lovebirds are always like this, get used to it.”

Luhan noticed that Yixing was leaning a teeny bit more into Junmyeon than Baekhyun.

Baekhyun scoffed but Luhan knew he wasn’t angry, “That doesn’t mean that it’s not awkward for us, though…”

Junmyeon chuckled and smiled, “The menu must be really interesting, Yixing. Any special offers today?” he asked cheekily and elbowed Yixing lightly.

Yixing blushed lightly and attempted to look at anything by Junmyeon but his eyes were drawn to him.

Baekhyun and Luhan both raised their eyebrows at Yixing’s blush and Junmyeon’s flirty line but chose to ignore it for now.

Yixing and Junmyeon were leaning into each other and having their own conversation so Baekhyun turned to speak to Luhan, “So are we meeting at yours tonight, or what?”

Luhan shrugged and sighed, “Why not? Like Tao said, my floor is empty so it’s not like anyone’s going to hear anything…”

Junmyeon suddenly looked up, “As the head boy I have to ask what you’re planning but as your friend I’m going to tell you to be careful.”

Luhan raised an eyebrow at that and crossed his arms, “Oh really?” he sounded suspicious.

Junmyeon raised his hands and looked panicked, “Don’t take it the wrong way!” he exclaimed, “I just need to check that you’re not having a party or anything like that!”

Baekhyun frowned and looked defensive, “We’re not having a party and it’s none of your business.”

Yixing was following the conversation with his eyes before he sighed, “Guys, Junmyeon is just concerned since the government inspectors are coming by soon. That’s all.”

Luhan visibly froze at that and both Baekhyun and Yixing glanced worriedly at him. Baekhyun chose to let Luhan take the news in by replying before Luhan could, “And what will they be inspecting, if I may ask?”

Baekhyun was eyeing Junmyeon. Junmyeon gulped before gathering the nerve to reply.

“They’re looking for new soldiers for a new peacekeeping group. There’s been an increase in rebellions so they’re wanting more soldiers.” Junmyeon seemed to pause before the word ‘rebellions’ and suddenly began looking at the floor before continuing.

“They’ve expressed an interest in Minseok and I already and I don’t want you to catch their attention, is all.”

Luhan looked up at Junmyeon and glared at him, “Why?” he was sneering, “What do you know about us?”

Baekhyun put a hand on Luhan’s forearm from across the table, “Hey, calm down.” He said quietly.

Junmyeon was looking between the two of them before he sighed, “I know about your abilities and how you’re hiding them. And I also know that you’re exactly what the army wants right now so I’m trying to keep you safe.”

Junmyeon put a hand over Yixing’s thigh and Yixing blushed as he covered his face with his hands.

“Why?” Luhan was glaring.

Junmyeon looked uncomfortable before confessing with his eyes towards his hand that was twirling the menu.

“My mother had the ability to read someone’s mind – telepathy. One of the last ones before they all got wiped out – purged. I don’t want the same to happen to my friends.”

Luhan suddenly felt a pang of guilt for assuming the worst of him and being suspicious, “I’m sorry, Junmyeon…” the table was silent for a few seconds.

Junmyeon nodded but looked up with a small smile, “But it’s okay, she died a long time ago and I was too young to remember it anyway.”

Baekhyun, Luhan, and Yixing nodded gravely.

Junmyeon turned to look at Luhan once more, “So can I join in the practise? I can serve as target or as lookout?” he winked.

Luhan chuckled, “Alright then.” He rolled his eyes.

x x x x x x

 

_The flashes were back and Luhan wasn’t happy with that._

_The flashes created faces every few seconds followed by bright lights that disorientated Luhan and made him feel dizzy._

_There were a few familiar faces like Junmyeon and Jongdae but most were unknown – which was strange since most of the new people seemed to be close to Junmyeon and Jongdae._

_The flashes settled on one image of one of the training domes in the academy._

_They were inside the dome and Luhan wasn’t familiar with any dome other than the ice training dome so he couldn’t tell which ones it was but it was very hot – uncomfortably so._

_Luhan felt sweat drip down his temple as he began to become more aware of his surroundings._

_He was in a very crowded training dome that seemed to be sparse in decoration, giving way for a huge empty space in the middle of the dome – in which Luhan was standing in._

_For a few seconds, his heart seemed to beat a little faster as he noticed people looking his way. But he quickly realised that nobody could see him as they were looking through him at someone behind himself._

_He relaxed and began to look around the dome._

_Luhan realised it was the fire training dome from the various flame insignia scattered around the dome and much bigger than the ice dome – probably because there were more fire ability citizens than ice._

_He didn’t have much more time to ponder as his eyes were drawn to a group of people sitting by the bar near the entrance of the dome. There were 5 people huddled around a circular table that was clearly meant for no more than 3._

_Luhan’s eyes widened when he noticed that sitting in one of the chairs, speaking to all of the huddled people, was Junmyeon._

_He was sitting down with everyone’s attention on him as he spoke with a serious face and furrowed brows. It was the face he had when he had talked about his mother._

_There was a tanned boy with thick lips and chocolate brown hair sitting around the table too that every once in a while glanced at another boy with pale skin but similar thick lips._

_They both snuck glances at each other throughout the conversation and eventually the pale boy sat on the tanned boy’s lap as they both continued listening to whatever Junmyeon was talking about._

_Luhan’s attention shifted to the tall boy that was standing behind the boy who sat in the other chair._

_The tall man had ears that seemed to stick out together with a smothered grin every time he poked or pinched the man with an amazing poker face in the chair in front of him._

_Luhan walked closer – he needed to hear what Junmyeon was talking about. What if he was talking about his little group? Was he telling other people about his own abilities?_

_“-so they seem to be in the same situation as us – attempting to hide. Although some of them are already noticed and outed.” Junmyeon was explaining with vivid hand gestures._

_“Minseok has been gathering a lot of attention for himself recently.” Luhan froze and strained his ears to hear every single detail._

_“I’m worried that the Academy will pass it on to the government. Jongdae has already been compromised and I fear recruited too.” The poker-faced boy seemed to frown at that but it was almost unnoticeable._

_Luhan suddenly focused on the tall boy since he seemed familiar. He was listening with half a mind but was sifting through the many people he had met over the years – perhaps he had seen him in his parents’ parties? He did seem pretty affluent from his fashion sense._

_“They all possess pretty rare abilities – healing and even time manipulation!” Junmyeon gave a prideful smile and Luhan spotted the tanned boy nodding with an open mouth as if in admiration._

_“And I don’t think Luhan’s told anyone but us and maybe Minseok about his ability – not even his parents – but he had telekinesis.” Junmyeon commented absent-mindedly._

_At this, Luhan saw the tall boy frown and scrunch his eyebrows. He suddenly opened his mouth to speak but then Luhan’s vision began to fade back to flashes of colours and sounds began to distort._

_As Luhan began to wake up he faintly heard Junmyeon’s reply, “Yes, Chanyeol?”_

Park Chanyeol.

x x x x x x

 

Honestly, Luhan felt like the world had decided to drop a couple thousand elephants on his face and then tell him to run a marathon.

After that dream, Luhan had been unable to fall back asleep. Whether it was because Luhan had dreamed of Chanyeol or because Luhan had dreamed of Chanyeol talking to Junmyeon – he didn’t know. But he knew they were worrying and that he needed to talk to Junmyeon.

So that’s what he decided to do as he walked to the cafeteria after texting Junmyeon to meet him there.

However, he hadn’t planned on meeting Jongdae along the way.

“Going somewhere, Luhan?” he grinned but Luhan couldn’t find any mirth in his eyes.

Luhan sighed and pushed Jongdae lightly out of the way, “Not now, Jongdae. I’ve got important business to deal with.”

Jongdae followed Luhan as he walked quickly towards the cafeteria, “Is it something to do with Junmyeon?”

Luhan nearly tripped over and felt his footsteps falter for a few steps and frowned, “Yes but it’s none of your business.”

Jongdae smirked, “Oh, I think it is.” His tone sounded teasing yet seemingly dark and not as innocent as it sounded.

The cafeteria doors were in sight now and wide open to Luhan sped up until he got through the doors and hurriedly sat on the table that Junmyeon was sat on with his book open.

Junmyeon sat up and smiled at Luhan before making eye contact with Jongdae as he sat down next to Luhan – they both offered tight-lipped smiles to each other.

Luhan groaned and covered his face with his hands, “So what’s the deal with you two?” he finally exclaimed after a few seconds of rubbing his eyes from the tiredness. His skin was considerably paler than usual.

Luhan continued when no answer was made, “Why do I get the feeling that you two know more than you say? Why am I dreaming of Junmyeon talking to  _Park flipping Chanyeol_  of all people? And why does Jongdae keep telling Minseok to be careful?

“I just don’t  _understand_!” he finished loudly and banged his fist on the table.

Junmyeon jumped at the noise but Jongdae barely reacted, wrapping an arm around Luhan instead.

Suddenly Junmyeon sighed, “I guess we should all just be honest instead of hiding it – it’s far more trouble than it’s worth, to be honest.”

Luhan frowned but remained silent, silently urging Junmyeon to continue with accusing eyes.

Junmyeon chuckled and held his hands up, “I never once lied to you or Minseok about anything, just to make it clear. I just never told you about the other group of people that are in exactly the same situation as you.”

Luhan looked confused and tilted his head to the side but remained silent whilst Jongdae awkwardly patted his arm.

“And where do you know Chanyeol from? He’s mentioned that he knows you but he wouldn’t tell me anything about you unless you told me yourself.” Junmyeon questioned with curious eyes.

Luhan frowned and mumbled, “It’s none of your business for now.” He continued tersely, “Why were you discussing our group and Minseok in the fire training dome?”

Junmyeon frowned, breaking his carefree smile and aura, “Are your dreams becoming more detailed now?”

Luhan scoffed, “Yes... No...” he groaned loudly, “Ugh, fine… Yes!”

Junmyeon smiled his carefree smile again and chuckled, “I see. Perhaps you are better off meeting the other group, no? As for the fire dome… It’s just comforting to know that there are others like us who are in hiding.” He smiled.

Luhan stood up quickly and turned to leave the room, before he left he turned around to face Junmyeon and exclaimed, “That doesn’t answer anything!” and left.

x x x x x x

 

Tao and Yixing had already arrived to the practise session in Luhan’s apartment, which left Baekhyun and Junmyeon to arrive.

Meanwhile, Yixing was helping Luhan set up a small snacking table in the kitchen aisle whilst Tao created a workout playlist on Luhan’s sound system in the living room where rubber yoga mats were spread out around the room.

A soft knock was heard from entrance and Luhan left Yixing to finish the snacking table whilst he walked down the short hallway to the entrance.

He knew it was either Baekhyun or Junmyeon opposite his thick black door but he couldn’t help but be a little bit apprehensive in opening the door.

If it was Baekhyun, Luhan knew he would be comfortable with the other’s easy-going personality and dirty jokes.

But ever since that weird dream and conversation with Junmyeon, the relationship between Luhan and Junmyeon had turned strained and awkward which left Luhan feeling sad at the loss of a good friendship.

He unlocked the door and opened it to find Junmyeon with his hand ready to knock once more and Baekhyun behind him with a small smile.

Luhan smiled at the sight of both of them and decided to ignore the awkwardness between him and Junmyeon for one night – it could be dealt with later.

x x x x x x

 

The night had ended up being a massive success and Luhan had managed to practise a little of his own ability and had been able to get a little more control – he had been able to stop any movement from both Tao and Baekhyun for a good few minutes.

The others had also enjoyed the night with Tao bringing some flowers to practise his time manipulation skills. Luhan had been rendered speechless as he had witnessed a small cactus that Tao had brought with him grow a small bud and then flower within a few seconds.

Yixing had enjoyed making the various plants scattered around Luhan’s apartment bloom and grow and even healed a few cuts and bruises of the small group that they had acquired, either through practise or even from just their daily lives.

Luhan had often found himself groaning and shouting at Baekhyun to stop messing with the lights since occasionally the room would suddenly darken. Baekhyun would often find himself cornered by a very angry Luhan with a few curse words ready to leave his mouth.

But the real gem of the night for Luhan was watching Yixing interact with Junmyeon.

Throughout the entire night, the two had made sure to always be working together on something or even just glancing at each other whilst in the middle of conversations with other people.

And although Luhan had been talking to a very excited Baekhyun about the possibilities of communication through mirrors using light rays, he had actually been paying close attention to the conversation that Yixing was having with Junmyeon on the sofa whilst Luhan was hovering near the door to the kitchen.

He had begun to listen in as he noticed Yixing’s cheeks redden and then turn a darker red after each small laugh to whatever Junmyeon said.

“So I basically only became student president because the headmaster was scared that I would tell everyone that I met one of the professors at a bar where he was surrounded by a bunch of super old guys.” Junmyeon was grinning and Yixing was covering his mouth with his hands but his laughter could be seen from the way his dimple showed.

Luhan had to admit that Junmyeon was smooth.

And soon the night ended and Baekhyun left before Kris came to pick up Tao, leaving Yixing and Junmyeon to walk to their rooms together.

On their way out, Luhan winked at Yixing who noticed and rolled his eyes before closing the door behind him.

It was a night of freedom and it allowed Luhan to relax for the first time in many years.

x x x x x x

 

Luhan was in the academy library to look for books for his essay on the relationship between gender and abilities.

Since it was such a controversial study subject, there weren’t many books on it so Luhan had only managed to find a couple of books in the entire library and soon began to make notes on one of the many desks scattered around the library.

He had moved onto the second book and his fourth cup of coffee before his note-taking was interrupted by the loud arrival of a group of 5 boys.

He would’ve ignored them if it weren’t for the recognisable voice and laugh of Kim Junmyeon. So Luhan had kept his eyes on the small group as they entered Luhan’s favourite little spot right at the back of the library where a few desks were hidden by many bookshelves – where Luhan was sitting right now.

He scanned the group to see if he could recognise anyone and then froze when he accidently made eye contact with  _Park Chanyeol_ , of all people.

It was impossible to miss his large ears and dumb smile with the way he scrunched his nose as he laughed at Junmyeon’s jokes.

Luhan hurriedly looked down at his own book and a tried to hide his face with his hoodie but that didn’t stop Chanyeol from coming over and sitting directly in front of him at the same desk.

The group had decided to crowd around the ‘War’ bookshelves as Chanyeol sat down.

Chanyeol was smiling widely, “Hey Luhan! I didn’t know you came to this academy! How have you been?”

Luhan didn’t know what irritated him most – the way that Chanyeol greeted him like it was only yesterday that he last saw him or the way that he had sauntered over like nobody’s business and began talking to him.

Luhan was frowning and rolled his eyes, “How could I have told you when you disappeared? And I was great until this very moment, thanks.”

Chanyeol frowned and looked down, as if feeling guilty, “Sorry… I wanted to talk to you but my parents wouldn’t let me.”

Luhan sighed, “Because you told them about me, right? How did you convince them to not tell my parents?”

Chanyeol was looking at his hands as he fiddled with Luhan’s pencilcase, “I never told them anything. It was because they wanted to take me to a military school – and they eventually did.”

Luhan’s eyebrows shot up at that, “What? So how are you here? Soldiers aren’t supposed to come here?”

Chanyeol chuckled quietly at that and looked up to grin widely at Luhan, “That’s because I was a shitty soldier so they sent me here to redeem myself!”

Chanyeol was still an idiot, Luhan had concluded.

How could anyone be happy about being labelled useless enough to unable to pull a trigger?

Luhan had allowed himself a little happiness at finally seeing Chanyeol again, “So you never told anyone?” he questioned.

Chanyeol grinned even wider and his grin looked like it could split his face in half, “Nope!” he made a thumbs up.

Luhan was laughing and he heard more people settle into the desks around his, “Chanyeol, I know you’re desperate for a boyfriend but you need to stop flirting with every person with a dick that you meet, I swear.” A tanned boy was laughing loudly with a small grin as he sat on the desk next to Luhan’s.

Chanyeol pouted and waved his arms around, “I swear I didn’t mean it that way, Luhan!”

Luhan laughed and shook his head, “It’s fine, I know.”

Chanyeol sighed in relief and Luhan saw Junmyeon eyeing the two of them with curiosity and a small smile.

Their little joke was interrupted by a deep voice over the academy tannoy, “The headmaster calls the following students to the training hall immediately: Kim Minseok, Kim Jongdae, Kim Junmyeon, Kim Jongin, Byun Baekhyun, Park Chanyeol, Oh Sehun, Do Kyungsoo, Huang Zitao, Wu Yifan, Zhang Yixing, and Lu Han.”

The atmosphere turned tense and the boys began to frown, the smaller, pale boy with narrow shoulders was the first to speak with a concerned tone, “That doesn’t sound good.”


	7. A Poor Man's Rhapsody

Luhan didn’t know why, but he found himself trembling as he walked into the training hall next to his usual lecture hall. He felt a sense of security whilst walking into the room with Tao, Baekhyun, and Yixing by his side.

The others that were also called walked in separate groups with Minseok the only one who walked alone with his head down.

Luhan had noticed that he was wearing a face mask and was clothed in thick layers but Luhan didn’t want to talk to Minseok just yet.

The large hall was empty, save for the curtains covering the large floor-length windows scattered around the hall and a few chairs that looked like they had been in that room for many decades.

“I didn’t even know this room existed.” Junmyeon commented whilst coughing as he scattered the dust on a chair close to the front of the hall.

The entire hall was darkened and filled with the chairs arranged in rows, all pointing towards a large blackboard directly opposite the double doors that the 11 men had walked through.

“You know, that’s kind of a bad thing for someone who is in the student council.” Yixing teased as he sat down in the seat next to Junmyeon’s.

The group soon began to follow and Tao sat on Luhan’s left whilst Baekhyun walked towards the seat on Luhan’s right but was intercepted by Minseok who hurriedly took his seat.

Luhan didn’t notice this and continued to talk to Tao and Baekhyun shrugged before going to sit near Kris who had sat next to Chanyeol and Tao.

Everybody seemed to forget the reason they were in the room until the doors suddenly shut and locked themselves and the room was lit by the chandeliers.

Luhan noted the way that Minseok suddenly sat straight in his seat and seemed tense when a man suddenly appeared in front of the black board, as well as a dozen soldiers dressed in all white surrounding him and the group of 11 who had sat in the front seats.

The man was smirking whilst he sat cross-legged on a chair identical to the rest and began to clap slowly. He shook his head and chuckled to himself, “I don’t understand why you all look so scared. You are all too strong for your own good, you should’ve expected this.”

The man released a large guffaw that echoed throughout the stark white hall and made the boys tense as they began to realise that this man was mad.

Tao, the mouthiest of them all, was the first to speak, “Were you the one who called us here? You expect us to not be scared of you when you bring dozens of soldiers with you?”

Kris put a hand on Tao’s leg and Luhan heard him whisper soothing words to calm Tao.

“What do you want from us?” Ever the one to be logical in stressful situations, Junmyeon took over speech and stood from his seat. Yixing stood up as well and wasn’t far behind as Junmyeon walked to stand just a few metres away from the threatening man.

The man stared at Junmyeon with a bored face before sighing and pointing towards the blackboard behind him.

" Government recruitment "

He lowered his hand again and leaned forward, “We’ve decided to put you forward for the government’s voluntary peacekeeping forces. Congratulations!” the man stated in a monotonous voice and clapped again.

Luhan took a breath and spoke, “Sir, the forces are supposed to be voluntary and I don’t think any of us have volunteered for this. And I know that some, including me, in this room don’t even have abilities.”

The man chuckled and began laughing maniacally once more, “No, you have volunteered.”

Luhan frowned and shook his head, “No, I haven’t.”

A chorus of agreement and nods came from the other boys; Minseok remained silent with his head lowered and his hands in the pockets of his hoodie.

“You will.” Those were the chilling words that Luhan heard before he had a cold gun pointed into his temple. The gun was shaking in the grip of the assailant.

Luhan’s eyes followed the gun and up the man’s arm; towards Minseok’s face.

His face which was twisted into a sorrowful grimace and his eyes which seemed to be overflowing with tears.

Luhan couldn’t ignore the guilt in Minseok’s eyes; as if Minseok was pleading for Luhan to forgive him.

It wasn’t until Luhan’s mind had fully processed what was happening that he realised that the other boys were being held at gunpoint too. Most by the soldiers from before but Luhan noticed a new person – Jongdae – who held the same guilty expression as Minseok as he held a gun to Sehun’s forehead.

Both appeared stone cold and emotionless but Luhan could only imagine what was going on inside their heads. He hadn’t talked to Sehun enough before but he knew that Sehun wasn’t one for showing much emotion.

The man’s chilling voice rang throughout the hall that was charged with tension, “It makes me so proud, as headmaster of this wonderful academy, that such high-achieving students are so driven in serving the government and protecting the people from the enemies.”

Luhan felt his hatred grow with every syllable of the man’s sickly sweet but morbid voice.

As the rage grew within him and his hands grew clammy from his tightening fists at his side, he noticed that the gun at his temple was trembling.

Luhan’s eyes travelled to Minseok’s face and the headmaster’s words faded into the background as Luhan watched the shimmering tears travel silently down Minseok’s cheeks.

There were no sobs or grimaces from Minseok, just glistening eyes looking pleadingly at Luhan with rivers of tears running down Minseok’s face.

Luhan sighed and closed his eyes as he relaxed his position, “I’ll do it.” He stated as he stood up and walked towards the front to stand in front of the headmaster.

“You’ll do what? I don’t understand what you mean, my boy.” The man was smirking as he taunted the response.

Luhan looked directly at the man, “I want to volunteer with the peacekeeping forces.” Minseok lowered his gun.

The man suddenly erupted in hysterical laughter that had many jump in their seats. The guards backed away and except for one who stepped forward with a steel briefcase.

The man sobered and his face, for the first time since the exchange began, looked serious before pointing at the blackboard that showed a small screen full of images of various people being tied up and knocked unconscious by the same soldiers standing around the headmaster.

Luhan heard Junmyeon and Chanyeol gasp behind him and even the whispered name ‘Rahee’ from Jongin on his right.

“If you all volunteer, they will be fine when morning comes. If you don’t….” he trailed off and tutted, “Let’s not mention that.” He chuckled dryly.

The soldier with the steel briefcase walked towards the small table to the left of where the headmaster sat and placed the briefcase down before opening it, revealing 12 silver bracelets.

The soldier retreated towards the line of soldiers and they began to file out of the room, leaving the 12 men to face the headmaster alone.

“If you volunteer, take a bracelet. If you don’t, we’ll see what happens to your dearest.” He commented before standing up and leaving the room.

Luhan was the first to walk towards the briefcase and take a bracelet.

Minseok and Tao followed him, whether they were moved by the images of the loved ones or just because of their close relationship with Luhan, he didn’t know.

Luhan noticed the black etching of several orbs connected by lines on the bracelet as he slid the bracelet onto his wrist.

He felt the bracelet tighten as it settled on his wrist and however hard he pulled, the bracelet wouldn’t slide off his hand.

He heard Baekhyun scream as he tried to pull off the bracelet to no avail.

Luhan widened his attention to watch as everyone reacted to their new predicament.

He saw Tao and Kris constantly in contact with each other, either through Tao pulling on Kris’ hoodie with his fist or through Kris looping his arm around Tao’s waist.

He saw Yixing discuss something in hushed tones with Junmyeon whilst trying to hide their intertwined fingers in the pockets of Yixing’s thick jacket.

He saw Sehun who was freaking out all over Jongdae whose eyes seemed unfocused and whose body seemed to fall into Sehun’s arms too easily.

And he saw Minseok who was wiping his tears furiously with his sleeves whilst trying to discretely watch Luhan’s reaction.

Luhan was honestly calm. He didn’t feel anything yet but he was sure he was due for a fit once he was locked in his room, away from the prying eyes of his friends.

He was considering what to eat for dinner before his thoughts were interrupted by Minseok’s body suddenly crashing into his own.

Luhan grabbed Minseok’s waist to hold him up after he noticed that he had fallen unconscious. It was only when he realised that Minseok’s body was unusually warm despite wearing a thin shirt that he realised something was deeply wrong.

I guess I’ll leave the realisation over what I’ve just done to tomorrow morning.

And with the help of Chanyeol, Luhan dragged Minseok’s seemingly lifeless body to his room.

x x x x x x

Chanyeol carefully placed Minseok’s limp body on the sofa whilst Luhan switched on the air conditioning in the hope that Minseok would cool down.

It all happened in an instant as Chanyeol walked towards Luhan in the kitchen and suddenly bent down and kneeled onto the floor, groaning in pain whilst clutching his right wrist.

Luhan began to breathe heavily and sweat despite the goosebumps on his skin from the air conditioning.

He couldn’t control himself as tears began to fall from his eyes as Chanyeol continue to groan and wince. He had tried to move towards Chanyeol but that only seemed to make the pain worse and so Luhan moved away.

After a few short minutes that felt like hours to Luhan as he witnessed the severe pain mar Chanyeol’s face, the pain seemed to stop as Chanyeol allowed his body to relax.

It was then that Luhan noticed that Chanyeol was clutching his silver bracelet, not his wrist, and that the bracelet was growing an eerie orange with the symbols on it glowing an even brighter orange.

“I’m sorry Luhan but I think they’re calling me for something.” Chanyeol had his eyes closed and Luhan could see his glistening face – whether it was from tears or sweat, Luhan didn’t want to know.

“It’s okay, you better go before they hurt you or something. It’d be horrible to lose you again after being apart for so long.” He had honestly attempted to make a little joke to brighten up the tense air but it came out a little sad instead.

“I swear that was meant to be funny.” Luhan whined.

Chanyeol chuckled and shook his head as he opened his eyes, “You should leave the jokes to Jongdae and me.”

Luhan scoffed, “Don’t get cocky!”

Luhan allowed himself a small smile – he had managed to bring back the smile into Chanyeol’s face.

Chanyeol stood up and began to walk out of the room whilst waving casually as he left.

“See you in the canteen?” Luhan questioned before Chanyeol could step out completely.

“Most likely.”

Luhan smiled and nodded despite knowing that Chanyeol couldn’t see him, “See you later, then.”

The door slipped shut and it was during that moment that Minseok stirred in his sleep.

He was groaning, in pain or maybe anguish, and seemed to be sweating profusely as he entangled himself around the thin sheets Luhan had placed over him.

He was constantly tossing and turning, as if having vivid nightmares but without rest.

Luhan wanted to wake him up to comfort him but he knew it would do more harm than good. Furthermore, their relationship wasn’t the greatest at the moment.

It was no secret among the group that they were both avoiding each other.


	8. Baby, It's Cold Outside

_If he had to describe the room in one word, it would be bleak._

_White walls, white floors, white uniforms, and somehow even the smell of white (or was it disinfectant? Minseok wasn’t quite sure anymore)_

_The days had all blended together and he couldn’t even remember the last time he had slept on a mattress rather than on the floor through tranquilisers._

_Minseok craved to feel sunlight on his skin, even for just a few seconds, instead of the white fluorescent artificial lights that were scattered in even rows throughout the ceiling and walls._

_There weren’t many people in the large room with him. Just a couple of bodyguards guarding the doors to the lift (_ Oh, yes. We are underground. _Minseok remembered) and his ‘instructors’ as he was told to call them._

_He didn’t remember how he got in here exactly. He just remembered being in the library one second and then a pain in the back of his head before he blacked out. He woke up in the corner of the white room in white uniform and with a silver shackle on his arm._

_But he didn’t have much time to ponder over where he was._

_“Your next task is to freeze the water that will come out of this hosepipe.”_

_He wasn’t allowed to argue._

_He had tried, honestly, but Minseok was left to scream as the shocks from his shackle caused him to collapse._

_If he was in the training hut, the task would’ve been easy. But for some reason, instead of freezing the water, Minseok had been freezing his hands._

_Over and over again._

_And over and over again, he would receive the shocks from the shackle that would make him collapse and writhe in pain._

_Sometimes he would black out._

_Other times, he would be forced to continue despite feeling so dizzy that he would soon collapse once more._

_“This should be easy! What are you-“_

x x x x x x

 

Luhan honestly felt a little bad for how he treated Minseok before.

After reflection and over a week without seeing him, he had begun to regret all those words.

And now Minseok was in his room and beginning to stir from whatever nightmare he was having.

Luhan had tried not to awaken him as he cleaned the sweat off Minseok’s face with a wet towel and moved him into a more comfortable position but it was futile.

Minseok opened his eyes wide and immediately began to breathe heavily whilst beginning to sit up. Luhan gently pressed him down by his chest and made quiet shushing sounds.

“Minseok, it’s okay, they’re not here anymore. You’re in my room now.” Luhan was never much good at comforting so he hoped whispered reassurances were enough.

Luhan brought a cup of water to Minseok and watched as he drank it and then set it down on the coffee table.

“You’re okay…?” were the first words that slipped from Minseok’s mouth as he turned to face Luhan.

Minseok, in his feverish state, was glistening with sweat and red in the face. Yet Luhan still appreciated the curve of his nose and the length of his eyelashes.

Both of them failed to notice just how close they were to each other’s faces.

Luhan smiled and blushed, “That’s your first concern? I’m fine and the others are fine, too. We were all very worried about you, though.”

Minseok looked into Luhan’s eyes and then to his hands in his lap now that he was sitting cross-legged on the sofa.

“Sorry about-“

“Hey, don’t apologise.” Luhan interrupted, “Don’t tell me unless you feel comfortable but I’m sure there was a very good reason for what you did.”

Minseok’s eyes flashed guilty for a second before he suddenly sneezed.

Luhan laughed loudly and Minseok joined in after recovering, and once the guffaws faded to small smiles, both of them noted the other’s gummy smile.

“Do you want anything to drink?”

“Coffee would be nice.”

“Say no more! The coffee fairy is here!” Luhan chuckled as he headed to the kitchen to switch on his coffee machine.

x x x x x x

 

The past few days had been cosy as classes were cancelled for the students to revise for the mock exams, which allowed Minseok plenty of time to heal in Luhan’s room.

“What you have yet to explain to me is why you prefer your lattes with the coffee added last rather than the milk added last. It just doesn’t make sense!” Luhan was questioning Minseok’s taste in coffee once more.

It was their daily morning routine. Luhan would make them their coffees each morning and they would watch the news whilst sitting on the sofa.

Nothing much had changed between them throughout the week, except that Luhan always sat close enough to Minseok to allow him to rest his head on Minseok’s shoulder and Minseok to wrap his arm around Luhan.

 So perhaps it wasn’t that much of a surprise when one of them took a step forward.

“It just tastes better.” He shrugged.

Luhan looked up from Minseok’s shoulder and parted his lips slightly to retort only to have it covered by Minseok’s own lips.

They tasted sweet from the frothed milk yet the bitter coffee could still be felt.

And it was deliciously warm.

Minseok pulled away after a few seconds, leaving Luhan’s lips to cool slightly and miss the heat from the other’s lips.

It took a while for Luhan to realise what had happened, but when he did the skin on his cheeks turned the colour of the greatest garnet.

Minseok hummed and continued watching the news like nothing had happened, except for the tell-tale blush on his cheeks.

Luhan rested his head on Minseok’s shoulders once more whilst licking his lips.

“You’re right, it does taste better.”

Minseok blushed a deeper red.

x x x x x x

 

Luhan really should ask Yixing to have a look at Minseok’s various wounds but he could never find Yixing after they were forced to join the peacekeeping forces.

He had tried asking Junmyeon where Yixing was but he only received a sorrowful distant look and an evasive reply followed shortly by Junmyeon excusing himself away.

So he was stuck in the awkward dilemma that was hesitating on whether to comment on Minseok constantly wincing whenever he moved too quickly as well as his fever.

Would it be too much for him to ask to just take a look?

Would it be okay to even ask? Is it weird that Luhan looked hard enough to notice Minseok’s limp?

What could Luhan even do about Minseok’s wounds? It’s not like he had any medical knowledge.

Luhan was seasoning the soup he made for the two of them whilst debating on whether to ask over dinner since it had been a couple of days since they were conscripted and Luhan was insanely curious.

However, his internal debate was cut short when he heard a loud yelp of pain from his bedroom.

He immediately turned the gas off the stove and ran to the bedroom to find Minseok doubled over in pain between the bed and the door to the ensuite bathroom on the floor.

He felt his heart beat two irregular beats as he noticed the sheen of sweat on Minseok’s face.

He ran to Minseok and kneeled by his side on the floor, “What’s wrong?” he demanded and tried to calm his racing heart as well as holding back his rapidly quickening breaths.

Minseok was clutching his wrist – no, bracelet – and was wincing and groaning in pain. Luhan was reminded of Chanyeol’s groaning when he had helped bring Minseok to his room. But this was worse.

Minseok was whimpering and Luhan could see the slight tremors through his arms.

“Minseok, please tell me what I can do to help!” Luhan knew he couldn’t do much to help but he at least wanted to try.

Minseok shook his head violently before throwing himself into Luhan’s chest.

Luhan instinctively wrapped his arms around Minseok’s body and felt the immense heat radiating from Minseok’s body.

It was obvious Minseok needed some sort of comforting and so Luhan held him tightly by the waist.

But it only seemed to make Minseok worse as he twitched and swatted Luhan’s arms away.

By now, both of their heartbeats had calmed down and Minseok’s breathing was becoming more regular – the bracelet had obviously stopped whatever it had been doing before.

Yet Minseok was still in pain and clutching his midriff, whereas Chanyeol had recovered very quickly from the pain.

Luhan instantly knew something wasn’t quite right with Minseok.

“Minseok, what’s wrong? Please just be honest with me so I can help you.” Luhan pleaded.

Minseok pushed his face into Luhan’s chest and shook his head.

“Tell me why you wince whenever I touch you. Please, Minseok. Please, just tell me.” Luhan never really liked to admit to himself that was easily upset and emotional, but it was hard to deny it in moments like these when his vision became blurry from his accumulating tears.

Minseok continued to shake his head but at least he wasn’t hugging himself as tightly as he had before.

Luhan, determined to find out what was wrong, suddenly pushed Minseok away from him, albeit gently, and pulled up his shirt just enough to see the fading yellow bruises littering Minseok’s midriff.

They were like dark patches on white granite as they divided Minseok’s skin into small patches of white and separated by dark yellow bruising.

Luhan brought a hand to his mouth in shock and the tears finally overflowed with a choked sob following them.

Minseok looked up at the sob and Luhan saw the guilty and panicked eyes through his blurry vision as Minseok mumbled apologies as pulled down his shirt again.

“I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have done that!” Luhan apologised, perhaps also on behalf of whoever inflicted those wounds on Minseok.

They were both silent for a few seconds as Luhan attempted to control his tears.

Minseok sighed and took a tissue out of his pocket and brought it to Luhan’s eyes, “Now, we can’t have a soldier crying, can we?” he attempted to brighten the mood with a small joke.

Luhan chuckled a little and blushed slightly as Minseok wiped the tears off his face.

Minseok was beginning to pull away but Luhan took the opportunity to grab his wrist to stop him from escaping, “Who put those bruises on you?” he demanded with crossed eyebrows and a vengeful glint in his eyes.

Minseok sighed, “Nobody that you could even think of hurting. Just forget about them, Luhan.”

Luhan shook Minseok’s shoulders violently with both hands, “How can I forget when you wince every time you stretch in the morning? It hurts me to see that!” Luhan’s eyes were wide in anger.

Minseok pulled Luhan’s hands away from his shoulders and held them together, “It’s okay, I’ll be okay. Just focus on keeping yourself healthy and alive.” Minseok smiled slightly in an attempt to comfort Luhan.

Luhan sighed, appeased, and smiled slightly back at Minseok.

He took in both of their dishevelled appearance and red eyes (although from different reasons) and messed up clothes.

Luhan looked into Minseok’s eyes, “Promise you’ll ask for my help if you need it and I can help you in any way?”

Minseok smiled sweetly and shook his head, “Promise.”

It was only short but Minseok suddenly lunged forward and lightly pecked Luhan on the lips before standing up and leaving the room.

Luhan could still feel the slightly bitter taste of coffee that Minseok’s lips left behind on his own even after only a small second.

He grinned to himself and blushed.


	9. Innocence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, this is the last chapter and it's discontinued :(

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the LAST chapter of a DISCONTINUED story.

White.

White fluorescent lights distributed evenly across the ceilings.

One for each slab.

Some of the lights were older and gave off a warm halogen glow.

The entire room was illuminated from corner to corner from the lights, giving off a sense of artificiality.

There were no windows.

The room reeked of disinfectant but Luhan could clearly smell a faint rusty smell.

The room was sparsely decorated save for a table with different sized items spread out across the table. Luhan was already familiar with them – his parents had created them when he was younger.

Luhan’s parents were a cause of a lot of his own misery, it seemed.

There were a couple of people, dressed in grey faded outfits, assembling what seemed to be some sort of structure made to constrict someone onto the wall.

Luhan’s attention turned back to his own situation as he became aware of a sharp prodding feeling on his right thigh.

He attempted to turn his head or at least crane his neck to be able to look at his thighs but found his body was held back by rubber straps all over his body.

There was a buzzing feeling in his extremities, perhaps from lack of blood flow or maybe drugs.

He couldn’t remember how he had got here from his room when the migraine began.

x x x x x x

 

The mid-afternoon glow pierced the windows of the all-white kitchen, reflecting the light to all corners of the kitchenette.

Low voices were heard from the TV in one corner with the birds singing in the trees opposite the kitchen windows.

_Tap tap tap…_

Minseok was typing on his laptop leaning on the arm of the sofa whilst Luhan had his head on his lap and watched the television programme with a passive expression and unfocused eyes.

Every few minutes, the typing sounds would pause and Minseok would run a hand through his hair and release a deep sigh. One of his arms would rest around Luhan’s waist, as if wanting to hold Luhan even closer.

And then within a minute, as if the pause had never happened, Minseok would return to typing.

The idyllic peace came to an end as Minseok felt Luhan’s body suddenly come tense and curl in on itself.

The laptop fell off the sofa’s arm as Minseok pulled Luhan up from his lap and braced his shoulders whilst kneeling in front of him on the floor.

Luhan’s face was distorted with fresh tears lining his cheeks and a sheen of sweat beginning to form across his forehead. His hands were held firmly over his ears and his shoulders were shaking.

The sound of Luhan’s whimpers echoed in the previously peaceful room, the TV could barely be heard as Minseok focused on Luhan’s apparent pain.

Luhan felt a burning pain in head, as if someone was drilling into the side of his head.

He couldn’t hear Minseok’s frantic questions through the repetitive droning sound echoing within his head.

Minseok eyed the bracelet in his right arm that was emitting a faint orange light. He swallowed the thick bile that suddenly blocked his throat and felt his stomach drop.

He closed his eyes and felt his head bow towards the ground whilst still holding onto Luhan’s hands, attempting to pull them away from his ears.

“…It’s your turn now…” Minseok whispered and felt the tears stream down his face.

He could do nothing but hold Luhan tightly until his whimpers were no longer heard.

After some time had passed and short words of encouragement were passed between the two martyrs, Minseok led Luhan to the underground training hall.

Minseok had hoped Luhan would escape the ‘training’ since he had decided to comply without force but that was only a hope.

And in this world that Minseok had come to see as dark and twisted, hope was nothing but a dream within those who could afford to hope.

For some, hope was a foreign word.

x x x x x x

 

There was a child in front of him. They were asking him to hurt it.

Every cell in Luhan’s body protested as his hands scrunched into fists and the child collapsed onto the ground.

Its screams echoed around the room and both the child and Luhan cried. The soldiers in the grey faded overalls nodded from the corner of Luhan’s eyes.

Luhan felt an overwhelming pressure gather within his mind and white spots began to dance across his vision.

The child’s screams echoed around the stark white chamber, mimicking Luhan’s own tortured screams of pain and horror within his mind.

The screams came to an abrupt end after a dry crack and a thud as its body fell onto the bloodied floor.

Luhan’s gaze focused on the rapidly growing pool of blood despite the white spots across his vision blocking the red stain. He felt a sudden breathlessness overcome him and struggled to draw breath.

Rivers of tears swept over the already-dried stains of tears on his hollowed cheeks, sobs now replacing screams in the chamber.

His vision blurred before fading to black.

x x x x x x

 

They found Luhan four hours after the call.

Luhan’s eyes were still distant and glazed from the migraine as the small group chattered loudly and freely in their usual corner of the library. The corner everyone avoided since it was almost always loud nowadays.

“Don’t get me wrong; everyone’s allowed to be a nerd but at least  _wash yourself_ , for god’s sake!” Baekhyun’s shrill voice was the loudest, shortly followed by Chanyeol’s bellowed laughter.

“And some deodorant isn’t a bad thing, either.” A rare chuckle from Sehun and a quiet “Preach” from either Yixing or Junmyeon - Minseok couldn’t tell – was heard.

The group had several little huddles of its own, each with its own conversation, snorts, and laughter.

Minseok was discussing the cafeteria’s lack of lunchtime variety with Kris and Tao whilst Luhan rested with his head in Minseok’s lap.

Minseok’s hand rested atop Luhan’s head, lightly stroking his cheeks whilst maintaining eye contact with Kris. Every few seconds during Kris’ rant about the abundance of celery in the cafeteria’s lasagne, Minseok would break eye contact and his eyes would flit to Luhan’s face and then back to Kris.

It was halfway through the morning, the dawn chorus having already faded to the chirping of the Himalayan swiftlets that had made the local area their home after the nuclear war of the early 2000s ruined their native land.

The library was buzzing with quiet chatter as students piled in to conduct last-minute revision for the exams coming up, some recovering from nightly sessions with their heads buried in their books.

In that moment in time, everything was perfect.

Luhan was safe in Minseok’s arms; safe from harm and safe from the world.

Jongdae was slowly opening up, beginning to chuckle lightly at jokes and even making a joke of his own.

But the peace was short-lived.

The library suddenly quietened into hushed whispers of fear and shock and soldiers in white stormed into the room where Minseok sat. One of the soldiers with scratches all over his face that had long since healed and scarred over, stepped forward as the soldiers neared the group.

His face showed no pity, except for the shine in his eyes from held-back emotions, as he drew his gun and pointed it towards the boy in Luhan’s lap.

“The headmaster calls Lu Han to training, yet he has failed to attend.”

Minseok’s breath escaped him and his light grip on Luhan’s waist tightened. “I wasn’t aware that there had been a call.”

The soldier’s eyes were pleading, “Surrender Lu Han and none shall be harmed.”

Minseok frowned, “Can you promise me that his mind won’t be harmed?”

The soldier closed his eyes, swallowed, and then opened them once more. “No.”

Minseok’s head tilted upwards, “Then why should I hand him over to you when you can’t promise me that he’ll come back unharmed?”

“Minseok, just let them have him. You know the headmaster wouldn’t kill him. Not yet.” Jongdae pleaded, the others were as pale and silent as death itself.

The soldiers suddenly lunged and dragged Luhan out of Minseok’s lap before he had time to react. The boy awoke with a start and Minseok’s tears fell as Luhan’s pain-filled eyes widened in terror.

“No!” Minseok’s agonised shouts were heard as the soldiers left the library with Luhan thrown over one of their shoulders. The library was deathly silent.

Minseok would not sleep that night.

x x x x x x

 

“Luhan!” Minseok ran up to the sleeping body lying on the floor of Luhan’s own bedroom. He cradled the man in his arms and listened to his breaths leaving his lungs and his heart beating, albeit slowly.

Relief coursed through his veins and he felt a thousand times lighter knowing that Luhan was alive.

Soft sobs could be heard throughout that night from both men as they lay on the floor, embracing each other.

One crying for the child that had perished, and one crying for the innocence that was stolen from them and the pain that came with it.


End file.
